VI
A STRANGE DISCOVERY
"It is my belief that Dr. Max Syx is a deceiver."
The person who uttered this opinion was a young engineer, Andrew Hall,who had charge of the operations of one of the mining companies whichwere driving tunnels into the Grand Teton.
"What do you mean by that?" asked President Boon, who was theprincipal backer of the enterprise.
"I mean," replied Hall, "that there is no free metal in this mountain,and Dr. Syx knows there is none."
"But he is getting it himself from his mine," retorted President Boon.
"So he says, but who has seen it? No one is admitted into the Syxmine, his foremen are forbidden to talk, and his workmen are speciallyimported negroes who do not understand the English language."
"But," persisted Mr. Boon, "how, then, do you account for the nuggetsscattered over the mountain? And, beside, what object could Dr. Syxhave in pretending that there is free metal to be had for thedigging?"
"He may have salted the mountain, for all I know," said Hall. "As forhis object, I confess I am entirely in the dark; but, for all that, Iam convinced that we shall find no more metal if we dig ten miles forit."
"Nonsense," said the president; "if we keep on we shall strike it. Didnot Dr. Syx himself admit that he found no free artemisium until histunnel had reached the core of the peak? We must go as deep as he hasgone before we give up."
"I fear the depths he attains are beyond most people's reach," wasHall's answer, while a thoughtful look crossed his clear-cut brow,"but since you desire it, of course the work shall go on. I shouldlike, however, to change the direction of the tunnel."
"Certainly," replied Mr. Boon; "bore in whatever direction you thinkproper, only don't despair."
About a month after this conversation Andrew Hall, with whom acommunity of tastes in many things had made me intimately acquainted,asked me one morning to accompany him into his tunnel.
"I want to have a trusty friend at my elbow," he said, "for, unless Iam a dreamer, something remarkable will happen within the next hour,and two witnesses are better than one."
I knew Hall was not the person to make such a remark carelessly, andmy curiosity was intensely excited, but, knowing his peculiarities, Idid not press him for an explanation. When we arrived at the head ofthe tunnel I was surprised at finding no workmen there.
"I stopped blasting some time ago," said Hall, in explanation, "for areason which, I hope, will become evident to you very soon. Lately Ihave been boring very slowly, and yesterday I paid off the men anddismissed them with the announcement, which, I am confident, PresidentBoon will sanction after he hears my report of this morning's work,that the tunnel is abandoned. You see, I am now using a drill which Ican manage without assistance. I believe the work is almost completed,and I want you to witness the end of it."
He then carefully applied the drill, which noiselessly screwed itsnose into the rock. When it had sunk to a depth of a few inches hewithdrew it, and, taking a hand-drill capable of making a hole notmore than an eighth of an inch in diameter, cautiously began boring inthe centre of the larger cavity. He had made hardly a hundred turns ofthe handle when the drill shot through the rock! A gratified smileilluminated his features, and he said in a suppressed voice:
"Don't be alarmed; I'm going to put out the light."
Instantly we were in complete darkness, but being close at Hall's sideI could detect his movements. He pulled out the drill, and for half aminute remained motionless as if listening. There was no sound.
"I must enlarge the opening," he whispered, and immediately the faintgrating of a sharp tool cutting through the rock informed me of hisprogress.
"There," at last he said, "I think that will do; now for a look."
I could tell that he had placed his eye at the hole and was gazingwith breathless attention. Presently he pulled my sleeve.
"Put your eye here," he whispered, pushing me into the proper positionfor looking through the hole.
At first I could discern nothing except a smoky blue glow. But soon myvision cleared a little, and then I perceived that I was gazing into anarrow tunnel which met ours directly end to end. Glancing along theaxis of this gallery I saw, some two hundred yards away, a faint lightwhich evidently indicated the mouth of the tunnel.
At the end where we had met it the mysterious tunnel was considerablywidened at one side, as if the excavators had started to changedirection and then abandoned the work, and in this elbow I could justsee the outlines of two or three flat cars loaded with broken stone,while a heap of the same material lay near them. Through the centre ofthe tunnel ran a railway track.
"Do you know what you are looking at?" asked Hall in my ear.
"I begin to suspect," I replied, "that you have accidentally run intoDr. Syx's mine."
"If Dr. Syx had been on his guard this accident wouldn't havehappened," replied Hall, with an almost inaudible chuckle.
"I heard you remark a month ago," I said, "that you were changing thedirection of your tunnel. Has this been the aim of your labors eversince?"
"You have hit it," he replied. "Long ago I became convinced that mycompany was throwing away its money in a vain attempt to strike a lodeof pure artemisium. But President Boon has great faith in Dr. Syx, andwould not give up the work. So I adopted what I regarded as the onlypracticable method of proving the truth of my opinion and saving thecompany's funds. An electric indicator, of my invention, enabled me tolocate the Syx tunnel when I got near it, and I have met it end on,and opened this peep-hole in order to observe the doctor'soperations. I feel that such spying is entirely justified in thecircumstances. Although I cannot yet explain just how or why I feelsure that Dr. Syx was the cause of the sudden discovery of the surfacenuggets, and that he has encouraged the miners for his own ends, untilhe has brought ruin to thousands who have spent their last cent indriving useless tunnels into this mountain. It is a righteous thing toexpose him."
"But," I interposed, "I do not see that you have exposed anything yetexcept the interior of a tunnel."
"You will see more clearly after a while," was the reply.
Hall now placed his eye again at the aperture, and was unable entirelyto repress the exclamation that rose to his lips. He remained staringthrough the hole for several minutes without uttering aword. Presently I noticed that the lenses of his eye were illuminatedby a ray of light coming through the hole, but he did not stir.
After a long inspection he suddenly applied his ear to the hole andlistened intently for at least five minutes. Not a sound was audibleto me, but, by an occasional pressure of the hand, Hall signified thatsome important disclosure was reaching his sense of hearing. At lengthhe removed his ear.
"Pardon me," he whispered, "for keeping you so long in waiting, butwhat I have just seen and overheard was of a nature to admit of nointerruption. He is still talking, and by pressing your ear againstthe hole you may be able to catch what he says."
"Who is 'he'?"
"Look for yourself."
I placed my eye at the aperture, and almost recoiled with the violenceof my surprise. The tunnel before me was brilliantly illuminated, andwithin three feet of the wall of rock behind which we crouched stoodDr. Syx, his dark profile looking almost satanic in the sharp contrastof light and shadow. He was talking to one of his foremen, and the twowere the only visible occupants of the tunnel. Putting my ear to thelittle opening, I heard his words distinctly:
--"end of their rope. Well, they've spent a pretty lot of money fortheir experience, and I rather think we shall not be troubled again byartemisium-seekers for some time to come."
The doctor's voice ceased, and instantly I clapped my eye to thehole. He had changed his position so that his black eyes now lookedstraight at the aperture. My heart was in my mouth, for at first Ibelieved from his expression that he had detected the gleam of myeyeball. But if so, he probably mistook it for a bit of mica in therock, and paid no further attention. Then his lips moved, and I put myear again to the
hole. He seemed to be replying to a question that theforeman had asked.
"If they do," he said, "they will never guess the real secret."
Thereupon he turned on his heel, kicked a bit of rock off the track,and strode away towards the entrance. The foreman paused long enoughto turn out the electric lamp, and then followed the doctor.
"Well," asked Hall, "what have you heard?"
I told him everything.
"It fully corroborates the evidence of my own eyes and ears," heremarked, "and we may count ourselves extremely lucky. It is notlikely that Dr. Syx will be heard a second time proclaiming hisdeception with his own lips. It is plain that he was led to talk as hedid to the foreman on account of the latter's having informed him ofthe sudden discharge of my men this morning. Their presence withinear-shot of our hiding-place during their conversation was, of course,pure accident, and so you can see how kind fortune has been to us. Iexpected to have to watch and listen and form deductions for a week,at least, before getting the information which five lucky minutes haveplaced in our hands."
While he was speaking my companion busied himself in carefullyplugging up the hole in the rock. When it was closed to hissatisfaction he turned on the light in our tunnel.
"Did you observe," he asked, "that there was a second tunnel?"
"What do you say?"
"When the light was on in there I saw the mouth of a smaller tunnelentering the main one behind the cars on the right. Did you noticeit?"
"Oh yes," I replied. "I did observe some kind of a dark hole there,but I paid no attention to it because I was so absorbed in thedoctor."
"Well," rejoined Hall, smiling, "it was worth considerably more than aglance. As a subject of thought I find it even more absorbing thanDr. Syx. Did you see the track in it?"
"No," I had to acknowledge, "I did not notice that. But," I continued,a little piqued by his manner, "being a branch of the main tunnel, Idon't see anything remarkable in its having a track also."
"It was rather dim in that hole," said Hall, still smiling in asomewhat provoking way, "but the railroad track was there plainenough. And, whether you think it remarkable or not, I should like tolay you a wager that that track leads to a secret worth a dozen of theone we have just overheard."
"My good friend," I retorted, still smarting a little, "I shall notpresume to match my stupidity against your perspicacity. I haven'tcat's eyes in the dark."
Hall immediately broke out laughing, and, slapping me good-naturedlyon the shoulder, exclaimed:
"Come, come now! If you go to kicking back at a fellow like that, Ishall be sorry I ever undertook this adventure."