Washington had heard little of this. The first reference to Laura’s trial had brought the old dejection to his face again, and he stood gazing out of the window at nothing, lost in reverie.
There was a knock-the postman handed in a letter. It was from Obedstown, East Tennessee, and was for Washington. He opened it. There was a note saying that enclosed he would please find a bill for the current year’s taxes on the 75,000 acres of Tennessee Land belonging to the estate of Silas Hawkins, deceased, and added that the money must be paid within sixty days or the land would be sold at public auction for the taxes, as provided by law. The bill was for $180 — something more than twice the market value of the land, perhaps.
Washington hesitated. Doubts flitted through his mind. The old instinct came upon him to cling to the land just a little longer and give it one more chance. He walked the floor feverishly, his mind tortured by indecision. Presently he stopped, took out his pocket book and counted his money. Two hundred and thirty dollars — it was all he had in the world.
“One hundred and eighty … … . from two hundred and thirty,” he said to himself. “Fifty left … … It is enough to get me home … … . Shall I do it, or shall I not? … . I wish I had somebody to decide for me.”
The pocket book lay open in his hand, with Louise’s small letter in view. His eye fell upon that, and it decided him.
“It shall go for taxes,” he said, “and never tempt me or mine any more!”
He opened the window and stood there tearing the tax bill to bits and watching the breeze waft them away, till all were gone.
“The spell is broken, the lifelong curse is ended!” he said. “Let us go.”
The baggage wagon had arrived; five minutes later the two friends were mounted upon their luggage in it, and rattling off toward the station, the Colonel endeavoring to sing “Homeward Bound,” a song whose words he knew, but whose tune, as he rendered it, was a trial to auditors.
CHAPTER LXII.
Philip Sterling’s circumstances were becoming straightened. The prospect was gloomy. His long siege of unproductive labor was beginning to tell upon his spirits; but what told still more upon them was the undeniable fact that the promise of ultimate success diminished every day, now. That is to say, the tunnel had reached a point in the hill which was considerably beyond where the coal vein should pass (according to all his calculations) if there were a coal vein there; and so, every foot that the tunnel now progressed seemed to carry it further away from the object of the search.
Sometimes he ventured to hope that he had made a mistake in estimating the direction which the vein should naturally take after crossing the valley and entering the hill. Upon such occasions he would go into the nearest mine on the vein he was hunting for, and once more get the bearings of the deposit and mark out its probable course; but the result was the same every time; his tunnel had manifestly pierced beyond the natural point of junction; and then his spirits fell a little lower. His men had already lost faith, and he often overheard them saying it was perfectly plain that there was no coal in the hill.
Foremen and laborers from neighboring mines, and no end of experienced loafers from the village, visited the tunnel from time to time, and their verdicts were always the same and always disheartening — ”No coal in that hill.” Now and then Philip would sit down and think it all over and wonder what the mystery meant; then he would go into the tunnel and ask the men if there were no signs yet? None — always “none.”
He would bring out a piece of rock and examine it, and say to himself, “It is limestone — it has crinoids and corals in it — the rock is right” Then he would throw it down with a sigh, and say, “But that is nothing; where coal is, limestone with these fossils in it is pretty certain to lie against its foot casing; but it does not necessarily follow that where this peculiar rock is coal must lie above it or beyond it; this sign is not sufficient.”
The thought usually followed: — ”There is one infallible sign — if I could only strike that!”
Three or four times in as many weeks he said to himself, “Am I a visionary? I must be a visionary; everybody is in these days; everybody chases butterflies: everybody seeks sudden fortune and will not lay one up by slow toil. This is not right, I will discharge the men and go at some honest work. There is no coal here. What a fool I have been; I will give it up.”
But he never could do it. A half hour of profound thinking always followed; and at the end of it he was sure to get up and straighten himself and say: “There is coal there; I will not give it up; and coal or no coal I will drive the tunnel clear through the hill; I will not surrender while I am alive.”
He never thought of asking Mr. Montague for more money. He said there was now but one chance of finding coal against nine hundred and ninety nine that he would not find it, and so it would be wrong in him to make the request and foolish in Mr. Montague to grant it.
He had been working three shifts of men. Finally, the settling of a weekly account exhausted his means. He could not afford to run in debt, and therefore he gave the men their discharge. They came into his cabin presently, where he sat with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands — the picture of discouragement and their spokesman said:
“Mr. Sterling, when Tim was down a week with his fall you kept him on half-wages and it was a mighty help to his family; whenever any of us was in trouble you’ve done what you could to help us out; you’ve acted fair and square with us every time, and I reckon we are men and know a man when we see him. We haven’t got any faith in that hill, but we have a respect for a man that’s got the pluck that you’ve showed; you’ve fought a good fight, with everybody agin you and if we had grub to go on, I’m d — — d if we wouldn’t stand by you till the cows come home! That is what the boys say. Now we want to put in one parting blast for luck. We want to work three days more; if we don’t find anything, we won’t bring in no bill against you. That is what we’ve come to say.”
Philip was touched. If he had had money enough to buy three days’ “grub” he would have accepted the generous offer, but as it was, he could not consent to be less magnanimous than the men, and so he declined in a manly speech; shook hands all around and resumed his solitary communings. The men went back to the tunnel and “put in a parting blast for luck” anyhow. They did a full day’s work and then took their leave. They called at his cabin and gave him goodbye, but were not able to tell him their day’s effort had given things a mere promising look.
The next day Philip sold all the tools but two or three sets; he also sold one of the now deserted cabins as old, lumber, together with its domestic wares; and made up his mind that he would buy provisions with the trifle of money thus gained and continue his work alone. About the middle of the afternoon he put on his roughest clothes and went to the tunnel. He lit a candle and groped his way in. Presently he heard the sound of a pick or a drill, and wondered, what it meant. A spark of light now appeared in the far end of the tunnel, and when he arrived there he found the man Tim at work. Tim said:
“I’m to have a job in the Golden Brier mine by and by — in a week or ten days — and I’m going to work here till then. A man might as well be at some thing, and besides I consider that I owe you what you paid me when I was laid up.”
Philip said, Oh, no, he didn’t owe anything; but Tim persisted, and then Philip said he had a little provision now, and would share. So for several days Philip held