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A Woman Intervenes

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Young Mr. Longworth also rose, and said languidly 'As this seems to be
a meeting of long-lost brothers, I shall not intrude. Good-day, Mr.
Von Brent.'

Then, adjusting his eyeglass in a leisurely manner, he walked out
of the room.




CHAPTER XXXVII.


When Edith Longworth entered the office of George Wentworth, that young
gentleman somewhat surprised her. He sprang from his chair the moment she
entered the room, rushed out of the door, and shouted at the top of his
voice to the boy, who answered him, whereupon Wentworth returned to the
room, apparently in his right mind.

'I beg your pardon, Miss Longworth,' he said, laughing; 'the fact was, I
had just sent my boy with a telegram for you, and now, you see, I have
saved sixpence.'

'Then you have heard from Canada?' said the young lady.

'Yes; a short message, but to the point.' He handed her the cablegram,
and she read:

'Mine purchased; shall take charge temporarily.'

'Then, the money got there in time,' she said, handing him back the
telegraphic message.

'Oh yes,' said George, with the easy confidence of a man who doesn't at
all know what he is talking about. 'We had plenty of time; I knew it
would get there all right.'

'I am glad of that; I was afraid perhaps we might have sent it too late.
One can never tell what delays or formalities there may be.'

'Evidently there was no trouble. And now, Miss Longworth, what are your
commands? Am I to be your agent here, in Great Britain?'

'Have you written to Mr. Kenyon?'

'Yes, I wrote to him just after I sent the cable message.'

'Of course you didn't----'

'No, I didn't say a word that would lead him to suspect who was the
mistress of the mine. In my zeal I even went so far as to give you a
name. You are hereafter to be known in the correspondence as Mr. Smith,
the owner of the mine.'

Miss Longworth laughed.

'And--oh, by the way,' cried Wentworth, 'here is a barrel belonging to
you.'

'A barrel!' she said, and, looking in the direction to which he pointed,
she saw in the corner of the room a barrel with the head taken away. 'If
it is my property,' continued the young woman, 'who has taken the liberty
of opening it?'

'Oh, I did that as your agent. That barrel contains the mineral from the
mine, which we hope will prove so valuable. It started from Canada over
three months ago, and only arrived here the other day. It seems that the
idiot who sent it addressed it by way of New York, and it was held by
some Jack-in-office belonging to the United States Customs. We have had
more diplomatic correspondence and trouble about that barrel than you
can imagine, and now it comes a day behind the fair, when it is really of
no use to anyone.'

Miss Longworth rose and went to the barrel. She picked out some of the
beautiful white specimens that were in it.

'Is this the mineral?' she asked.

Wentworth laughed.

'Imagine a person buying a mine at an exorbitant price, and not knowing
what it produces. Yes, that is the mineral.'

'This is not mica, of course?'

'No, it is not mica. That is the stuff used for the making of china.'

'It looks as if it would take a good polish. Will it, do you know?'

'I do not know. I could easily find out for you.'

'I wish you would, and get a piece of it polished, which I will use as a
paper-weight.'

'What are your orders for the rest of the barrel?'

'What did you intend doing with it?' said the young woman.

'Well, I was thinking the best plan would be to send some of it to each
of the pottery works in this country, and get their orders for more of
the stuff, if they want to use it.'

'I think that an extremely good idea. I understand from the cablegram
that Mr. Kenyon says he will take charge of the mine temporarily.'

'Yes; I imagine he left Ottawa at once, as soon as he had concluded his
bargain. Of course, we shall not know for certain until he writes.'

'Very well, then, it appears to me the best thing you could do over here
would be to secure what orders can be obtained in England for the
mineral. Then, I suppose, you could write to Mr. Kenyon, and ask him to
engage a proper person to work the mine.'

'Yes, I will do that.'

'When he comes over here, you and he can have a consultation as to the
best thing to do next. I expect nothing very definite can be arranged
until he comes. You may make whatever excuse you can for the absence of
the mythical Mr. Smith, and say that you act for him. Then you may tell
Mr. Kenyon, in whatever manner you choose, that Mr. Smith intends both
you and Mr. Kenyon to share conjointly with him. I think you will have no
trouble in making John--that is, in making Mr. Kenyon--believe there is
such a person as Mr. Smith, if you put it strongly enough to him. Make
him understand that Mr. Smith would never have heard of the mine unless
Mr. Kenyon and you had discovered it, and that he is very glad indeed to
have such a good opportunity of investing his money; so that, naturally,
he wishes those who have been instrumental in helping him to this
investment to share in its profits. I imagine you can make all this clear
enough, so that your friend will suspect nothing. Don't you think so?'

'Well, with any other man than John Kenyon I should have my doubts,
because, as a fabricator, I don't think I have a very high reputation;
but with John I have no fears whatever. He will believe everything I
say. It is almost a pity to delude so trustful a man, but it's so very
much to his own advantage that I shall have no hesitation in doing it.'

'Then, you will write to him about getting a fit and proper person to
manage the mine?'

'Yes. I don't think there will be any necessity for doing so, but I will
make sure. I imagine John will not leave there until he sees everything
to his satisfaction. He will be very anxious indeed for the mine to prove
the great success he has always believed it to be, even though, at
present, he does not know he is to have any pecuniary interest in its
prosperity.'

'Very well then, I shall bid you good-bye. I may not be here again, but
whenever you hear from Mr. Kenyon, I shall be very glad if you will let
me know.'

'Certainly; I will send you all the documents in the case, as you once
remarked. You always like to see the original papers, don't you?'

'Yes, I suppose I do.' Miss Longworth lingered a moment at the door,
then, looking straight at Wentworth, she said to him, 'You remember you
spoke rather bitterly to my father the other day?'

'Yes,' said Wentworth, colouring; 'I remember it.'

'You are a young man; he is old. Besides that, I think you were entirely
in the wrong. He had nothing whatever to do with his nephew's action.'

'Oh, I know that,' said Wentworth. 'I would have apologized to him long
ago, only--well, you know, he told me I shouldn't be allowed in the
office again, and I don't suppose I should.'

'A letter from you would be allowed in the office,' replied the young
lady, looking at the floor.

'Of course it would,' said George; 'I will write to him instantly and
apologize.'

'It is very good of you,' said, Edith, holding out her hand to him; the
next moment she was gone.

George Wentworth turned to his desk and wrote a letter of apology. Then
he mused to himself upon the strange and incomprehensible nature of
women. 'She makes me apologize to him, and quite right too; but if it
hadn't been for the row with her father, she never would have heard about
the transaction, and therefore couldn't have bought the mine, which she
was anxious to do for Kenyon's sake--lucky beggar John is, after all!'




CHAPTER XXXVIII.


When the business of transferring the mine to its new owner was
completed, John Kenyon went to the telegraph-office, and sent a short
cable-message to Wentworth. Then he turned his steps to the hotel, an
utterly exhausted man. The excitement and tension of the day had been too
much for him, and he felt that, if he did not get out of the city of
Ottawa and into the country, where there were fewer people and more air,
he was going to be ill. He resolved to leave for the mine as soon as
possible. There he would get affairs in as good order as might be, and
keep things going until he heard from the owner. When he reached his
hotel, he wrote a letter to Wentworth, detailing briefly the
circumstances under which he had secured the mine, and dealing with other
more personal matters. Having posted this, he began to pack his
portmanteau, preparatory to leaving early next morning. While thus
occupied, the bell-boy came into his room, and said:

'There is a gentleman wants to see you.'

He imagined at once that it was Von Brent, who wished to see him with
regard to some formality relating to the transfer, and he was, therefore,
very much astonished--in fact, for the moment speechless--when Mr.
William Longworth entered and calmly gazed round the rather shabby room
with his critical eyeglass.

'Ah,' he said, 'these are your diggings, are they? This is what they call
a dollar hotel, I suppose, over here. Well, some people may like it, but,
I confess, I don't care much about it, myself. Their three or four
dollars a day hotels are bad enough for me. By the way, you look rather
surprised to see me; being strangers together in a strange country, I
expected a warmer greeting. You said last night, in front of the Russell
House, that it would please you very much to give me a warm greeting;
perhaps you would like to do so to-night.'

'Have you come up here to provoke a quarrel with me?' asked Kenyon.

'Oh, bless you, no! Quarrel! Nothing of the sort. What should I want to
quarrel about?'

'Perhaps you will be good enough to tell me why you come here, then?'

'A very reasonable request. Very reasonable indeed, and perfectly
natural, but still quite unnecessary. It is not likely that a man would
climb up here into your rooms, and then not be prepared to tell you why
he came. I came, in the first place, to congratulate you on the beautiful
and dramatic way in which you secured the mine at the last moment, or
apparently at the last moment. I suppose you had the money all the time?'

'No, I had not.'

'Then you came in to Von Brent just as soon as you received it?'

'Well, now, I don't see that it is the business of anyone else but
myself. Still, if you want to know, I may say that I came to Mr. Von
Brent's room at the moment I received the money.'

'Really! Then it was sent over by cable, I presume?'

'Your presumption is entirely correct.'

'My dear Kenyon,' said the young man, seating himself without being
asked, and gazing at John in a benevolent kind of way, 'you really show
some temper over this little affair of yours. Now, here is the whole
thing in a nutshell----'

'My dear sir, I don't wish to hear the whole thing, in a nutshell. I know
all about it--all I wish to know.'

'Ah, precisely; of course you do; certainly; but, nevertheless, let me
have my say. Here is the whole thing. I tried to--well, to cheat you.
I thought I could make a little money by doing so, and my scheme
failed. Now, if anybody should be in a bad temper, it is I, not you.
Don't you see that? You are not acting your part well at all. I'm
astonished at you!'

'Mr. Longworth, I wish to have nothing whatever to say to you. If you
have anything to ask, I wish you would ask it as quickly as possible, and
then leave me alone.'

'The chief fault I find with you, Kenyon,' said Longworth, throwing one
leg over the other, and clasping his hands round his knee--'the chief
fault I have to find is your painful lack of a sense of humour. Now,
you remember last night I offered you the managership of the mine. I
thought, certainly, that by this time to-day I should be owner of it,
or, at least, one of the owners. Now, you don't appear to appreciate the
funniness of the situation. Here you are the owner of the mine, and I am
out in the cold--"left," as they say here in America. I am the man who
is left----'

'If that is all you have to talk about,' said Kenyon gravely, 'I must ask
you to allow me to go on with my packing. I am going to the mine
to-morrow.'

'Certainly, my dear fellow; go at once and never mind me. Can I be of any
assistance to you? It requires a special genius, you know, to pack a
portmanteau properly. But what I wanted to say was this: Why didn't you
turn round, when you had got the mine, and offer _me_ the managership of
it? Then you would have had your revenge. The more I think of that
episode in Von Brent's office, the more I think you utterly failed to
realize the dramatic possibilities of the situation.'

Kenyon was silent.

'Now, all this time you are wondering why I came here. Doubtless you wish
to know what I want.'

'I have not the slightest interest in the matter,' said Kenyon.

'That is ungracious, but, nevertheless, I will continue. It is better, I
see, to be honest with you, if a man wants to get anything from you. Now,
I want to get a bit of information from you. I want to know where you got
the money with which you bought the mine?'

'I got it from the bank.'

'Ah, yes, but I want to know who sent it over to you?'

'It was sent to me by George Wentworth.'

'Quite so; but _now_ I want to know who gave Wentworth the money?'

'You will have a chance of finding that out when you go to England, by
asking him.'

'Then you won't tell me?'

'I can't tell you.'

'You mean by that, of course, that you won't.'

'I always mean, Mr. Longworth, exactly what I say. I mean that I can't
tell you. I don't know myself.'

'Really?'

'Yes, really. You seem to have some difficulty in believing that anybody
can speak the truth.'

'Well, it isn't a common vice, speaking the truth. You must forgive a
little surprise.' He nursed his knee for a moment, and looked
meditatively up at the ceiling. 'Now, would you like to know who
furnished that money?'

'I have no curiosity in the matter whatever.'

'Have you not? You are a singular man. It seems to me that a person into
whose lap twenty thousand pounds drops from the skies would have some
little curiosity to know from whom the money came.'

'I haven't the slightest.'

'Nevertheless, I will tell you who gave the money to Wentworth. It was
my dear friend Melville. I didn't tell you in New York, of course, that
Melville and I had a little quarrel about this matter, and he went home
decidedly huffy. I had no idea he would take this method of revenge; but
I see it quite clearly now. He knew I had secured the option of the
mine. There was a little trouble as to what our respective shares were
to be, and I thought, as I had secured the option, I had the right to
dictate terms. He thought differently. He was going to Von Brent to
explain the whole matter; but I pointed out that such a course would do
no good, the option being legally made out in my name, so that the
moment your claim expired mine began. When this dawned upon him, he took
the steamer and went to England. Now, I can see his hand in this
artistic finish to the affair. It was a pretty sharp trick of
Melville's, and I give him credit for it. He is a very much shrewder and
cleverer man than I thought he was.'

'It seems to me, Mr. Longworth, that your inordinate conceit makes you
always underestimate your friends, or your enemies either, for that
matter.'

'There is something in that, Kenyon; I think you are more than half right,
but I thought, perhaps, I could make it advantageous to you to do
me a favour in this matter. I thought you might have no objection to
writing a little document to the effect that the money did not come in
time, and consequently, I had secured the mine. Then, if you would sign
that, I would take it over to Melville and make terms with him. Of
course, if he knows that he has the mine there will not be much chance of
coming to any arrangement with him.'

'You can make no arrangements with me, Mr. Longworth, that involve
sacrifice of the truth.'

'Ah, well, I suspected as much; but I thought it was worth trying.
However, my dear sir, I may make terms with Melville yet, and then, I
imagine, you won't have much to do with the mine.'

'I shall not have anything to do with it if you and Melville have a share
in it; and if, as you suspect, Melville has the mine, I consider you are
in a bad way. My opinion is that, when one rascal gets advantage over
another rascal, the other rascal will be, as you say, "left."'

Longworth mused over this for a moment, and said:

'Yes, I fear you are right--in fact, I am certain of it. Well, that is
all I wanted to know. I will bid you good-bye. I shan't see you again in
Ottawa, as I shall sail very shortly for England. Have you any messages
you would like given to your friends over there?'

'None, thank you.'

'Well, ta-ta!' And John was left to his packing. That necessary operation
concluded, Kenyon sat down and thought over what young Longworth had told
him. His triumph, after all, had been short-lived. The choice between the
two scoundrels was so small that he felt he didn't care which of them
owned the mine. Meditating on this disagreeable subject, he suddenly
remembered a request he had asked Wentworth to place before the new owner
of the mine. He wanted no favour from Melville, so he wrote a second
letter, contradicting the request made in the first, and, after posting
it, returned to his hotel, and went to bed, probably the most tired man
in the city of Ottawa.




CHAPTER XXXIX.


This chapter consists largely of letters. As a general rule, letters are
of little concern to anyone except the writers and the receivers, but
they are inserted here in the hope that the reader is already well
enough acquainted with the correspondents to feel some interest in what
they have written.

It was nearly a fortnight after the receipt of the cablegram from Kenyon
that George Wentworth found, one morning, on his desk two letters, each
bearing a Canadian postage-stamp. One was somewhat bulky and one was
thin, but they were both from the same writer. He tore open the thin one
first, without looking at the date stamped upon it. He was a little
bewildered by its contents, which ran as follows:

'MY DEAR GEORGE,

'I have just heard that Melville is the man who has bought the mine. The
circumstances of the case leave no doubt in my mind that such is the
fact; therefore, please disregard the request I made as to employment in
the letter I posted to you a short time ago. I feel a certain sense of
disappointment in the fact that Melville is the owner of the mine. It
seems I have only kept one rascal from buying it in order to put it in
the hands of another rascal.

'Your friend,

'JOHN KENYON.'

'Melville the owner!' cried Wentworth to himself. 'What could have put
that into John's head? This letter is evidently the one posted a few
hours before, so it will contain whatever request he has to make;' and,
without delay, George Wentworth tore open the envelope of the second
letter, which was obviously the one written first.

It contained a number of documents relating to the transfer of the mine.
The letter from John himself went on to give particulars of the buying of
the property. Then it continued:

'I wish you would do me a favour, George. Will you kindly ask the owner
of the mine if he will give me charge of it? I am, of course, anxious to
make it turn out as well as possible, and I believe I can more than earn
my salary, whatever it is. You know I am not grasping in the matter of
money, but get me as large a salary as you think I deserve. I desire to
make money for reasons that are not entirely selfish, as you know. To
tell you the truth, George, I am tired of cities and of people. I want to
live here in the woods, where there is not so much deceit and treachery
as there seems to be in the big towns. When I reached London last time, I
felt like a boy getting home. My feelings have undergone a complete
change, and I think, if it were not for you and a certain young lady, I
should never care to see the big city again. What is the use of my
affecting mystery, and writing the words "a certain young lady"? Of
course, you know whom I mean--Miss Edith Longworth. You know, also, that
I am, and have long been, in love with her. If I had succeeded in making
the money I thought I should by selling the mine, I might have had some
hopes of making more, and of ultimately being in a position to ask her to
be my wife; but that and very many other hopes have disappeared with my
recent London experiences. I want to get into the forest and recover some
of my lost tone, and my lost faith in human nature. If you can arrange
matters with the owner of the mine, so that I may stay here for a year
or two, you will do me a great favour.'

George Wentworth read over the latter part of this letter two or three
times. Then he rose, paced the floor, and pondered.

'It isn't a thing upon which I can ask anyone's advice,' he muttered to
himself. 'The trouble with Kenyon is, he is entirely too modest; a little
useful self-esteem would be just the thing for him.' At last he stopped
suddenly in his walk. 'By Jove!' he said to himself, slapping his thigh,
'I shall do it, let the consequences be what they may.'

Then he sat down at his desk and wrote a letter.

'DEAR Miss LONGWORTH' (it began),

'You told me when you were here last that you wanted all the documents
pertaining to the mine, in every instance. A document has come this
morning that is rather important. John Kenyon, as you will learn by
reading the letter, desires the managership of the mine. I need not say
that I think he is the best man in the world for the position, and that
everything will be safe in his hands. I therefore enclose you his letter.
I had some thought of cutting out a part of it, but knowing your desire
to have all the documents in the case, I take the liberty of sending this
one exactly as it reached me, and if anyone is to blame, I am the person.

'I remain, your agent,

'GEORGE WENTWORTH.'

He sent this letter out at once, so that he would not have a chance to
change his mind.

'It will reach her this afternoon, and doubtless she will call and see
me.'

It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say she did _not_ call, and she did
not see him for many days afterwards; but next morning, when he came to
his office, he found a letter from her. It ran:

'DEAR MR. WENTWORTH,

'The sending of Mr. Kenyon's letter to me is a somewhat dangerous
precedent, which you must on no account follow by sending any letters you
may receive from any other person to Mr. Kenyon. However, as you were
probably aware when you sent the letter, no blame will rest on your
shoulders, or on those of anyone else, in this instance. Still, be very
careful in future, because letter-sending, unabridged, is sometimes a
risky thing to do. You are to remember that I always want all the
documents in the case, and I want them with nothing eliminated. I am very
much obliged to you for forwarding the letter.

'As to the managership of the mine, of course I thought Mr. Kenyon would
desire to come back to London. If he is content to stay abroad, and
really wants to stay there, I wish you would tell him that Mr. Smith is
exceedingly pleased to know he is willing to take charge of the mine. It
would not look businesslike on the part of Mr. Smith to say that Mr.
Kenyon is to name his own salary, but, unfortunately, Mr. Smith is very
ignorant as to what a proper salary should be, so will you kindly settle
that question? You know the usual salary for such an occupation. Please
write down that figure, and add two hundred a year to it. Tell Mr.
Kenyon the amount named is the salary Mr. Smith assigns to him.

'Pray be very careful in the wording of the letters, so that Mr. Kenyon
will not have any idea who Mr. Smith is.

'Yours truly,

'EDITH LONGWORTH.

When Wentworth received this letter, being a man, he did not know whether
Miss Longworth was pleased or not. However, he speedily wrote to John,
telling him that he was appointed manager of the mine, and that Mr. Smith
was very much pleased to have him in that capacity. He named the salary,
but said if it was not enough, no doubt Mr. Smith was so anxious for his
services that the amount would be increased.

John, when he got the letter, was more than satisfied.

At the time Wentworth was reading his letters, John had received those
which had been sent when the mine was bought. He was relieved to find
that Melville was not, after all, the owner; and he went to work with a
will, intending to put in two or three years of his life, with hard
labour, in developing the resources of the property. The first fortnight,
before he received any letters, he did nothing but make himself
acquainted with the way work was being carried on there. He found many
things to improve. The machinery had been allowed to run down, and the
men worked in the listless way men do when they are under no particular
supervision. The manager of the mine was very anxious about his position.
John told him the property had changed hands but, until he had further
news from England, he could not tell just what would be done. When the
letters came, John took hold with a will, and there was soon a decided
improvement in the way affairs were going. He allowed the old manager to
remain as a sort of sub-manager; but that individual soon found that the
easy times of the Austrian Mining Company were for ever gone.

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