The others nodded. ‘We want to be certain sure you’re going to sell to the company,’ the bundle of old rags with the fur cap said in a reedy voice. ‘If you do that then there’ll be money in Come Lucky again, I guess. I can open up my store. Ain’t bin open since 1941.’
‘George is right,’ exclaimed another. There’ll be money, and work for those that want it. Peter’ll have the cable going again, won’t you, Peter? There’ll be all the machinery to haul up and the materials to complete the dam. It’ll be like old times here in Come Lucky.’
‘It sure will.’
‘Well?’ McClellan asked. ‘What are you going to do? Let’s have it right here and now so that we know where we stand.’
‘Ar. Let’s hear now.’
I stared at them, all eyeing me, all silent now, waiting. McClellan’s eyes were fixed on me greedily. And suddenly all of them seemed to have the hunger of greed in their eyes, as though the old boom days were just around the corner. They were like a bunch of shiftless curs eyeing a bone.
‘Well?’ The old Hutterite’s voice was hard with eagerness.
‘I’m not selling,’ I said.
Peter Trevedian’s chair flung back against the wall with a crash as he got to his feet. ‘You said you were going to think it over.’
‘I’ve done so,’ I said. ‘And I’ve made up my mind. I’m not selling.’
He swung round on the others. ‘I told you what it would be. We’re going to have the same damned nonsense all over again.’ He got control of himself then and came towards me. ‘Look, the townsfolk here want this scheme to go through. It’s important to them.’ His tone was considered and reasonable, but his eyes were hard and angry as they stared at me. ‘You owe it to the people your grandfather ruined.’
‘And suppose he was right?’ I said.
‘What — about the oil?’
There was a hoot of laughter.
‘Then show us the river of oil,’ somebody called out. And another shouted, ‘Aye. You drown Come Lucky with oil. We’ll drown the Kingdom with water. See who’s flooded out first.’ A shout of laughter followed this.
Under cover of it Trevedian said quietly, ‘Take my advice, sell the place and get out.’
I turned to Bladen. ‘Tell me the truth about that survey,’ I said.
‘Oh, to hell with the survey,’ Trevedian snapped. ‘Why don’t you think about the people here for a change?’
‘Why should I?’ I cried. ‘What did they ever do for my grandfather except try and cash in on his discovery and then blame him when they lost their money. I might have been willing to sell out-’ I looked round at the group facing me. The watery eyes of the old men glistened in the lamplight. They looked as ghostly as the town and their eyes had the fever-brightness of men about to jump a claim. ‘But I’ve just discovered that my grandfather knew the results of that survey. Somebody took a copy of the report Up to him just before winter set in.’
‘What’s that got to do with it?’ James McClellan demanded.
‘Just this.’ My voice trembled. ‘In my opinion the man who did that was responsible for my grandfather’s death. Because of that the welfare of this town is no longer a consideration as far as I’m concerned. And if I knew who’d done it-’
‘If you knew, what would you do, huh?’ Max Trevedian had thrust his massive body to its feet. ‘I took that report up. I gave it to Campbell.’ He lurched forward, hot hate in his eyes. ‘It killed him, did it? That is good.’
I stared at the foolish grin on his thick lips. ‘You’re mad,’ I heard myself say.
‘How was my brother to know that the report showed there was no possibility of oil up there?’ Peter Trevedian said. ‘We naturally thought the old man would want to know the result.’
I turned to him, staring at him. ‘You sent your brother up with that report,’ I said.
He nodded. ‘Yes. I sent him.’
‘And how did you get hold of a second copy?’ He didn’t say anything, but just stood smiling at me. ‘Did this man Henry Fergus send it to you?’
He moved a step closer and his hand gripped my arm, ‘What do you think we are — a bunch of cattle to be sucked dry without any feelings about it? There’s forty years of hatred stored up in this town, hatred of Campbell and everything he did to us.’ He dropped my arm and turned away.
I looked round at the others. What I had seen in his eyes was reflected in theirs. It was then I noticed that Bladen had left. Feeling suddenly sick at heart I crossed to the door and went up to the seclusion of my room. It was bare and cold and very quiet. I put the cardboard box gently down on the chest of drawers. I had been clutching it very tightly as though it were the old man’s ashes and my fingers were stiff.
My face looked grey and haggard in the blotched mirror. I poured myself a stiff whisky, but the liquor didn’t warm me and I was still shaking as I slumped down on to the bed. The stillness seemed to close round me, the embodiment of the utter loneliness I felt. The scene in the bar-room had given me a foretaste of the struggle that lay ahead. All I had wanted to do was to crawl away to the seclusion of my grandfather’s kingdom and forget the outside world. I heard myself laugh. I hadn’t known the place was dominated by a half-completed dam. That dam was growing in my imagination to nightmare proportions. It seemed to hang over me.
I must have fallen asleep for I was suddenly startled by a knock on the door. ‘Come in,’ I murmured. It was Pauline McClellan. She stood looking at me nervously. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes,’ I said, pushing myself up on to my elbow. ‘What is it?’
‘Boy Bladen is down below. He wants to talk to you. Shall I tell him to come up?’
‘Yes.’
She hesitated. ‘Is there anything I can get you?’ % ‘No thanks.’
‘Goodnight then.’ She smiled and closed the door. I sat up and lit a cigarette. A moment later I heard Bladen’s feet on the stairs. He knocked and pushed open the door. ‘Mind if I come in?’ His voice was quiet, but his dark eyes had a peculiar brightness. He shut the door and stood there, hesitantly. ‘I’ve just been talking to Jean.’
He didn’t seem to know how to go on so I said, ‘Pull up a chair.’
I don’t think he heard me for he turned away towards the window. ‘When you spoke to me after tea this evening I didn’t know you’d emigrated to Canada, prepared to live up in the Kingdom and start out where Stuart had left off.’
He turned suddenly round on his heels, a quick, lithe movement. ‘Why didn’t you tell me that?’
‘I didn’t see any necessity,’ I murmured.
‘No, of course not.’ He lit a cigarette with quick, nervous movements. I had the feeling of something boiling up inside him. ‘You were outside Trevedian’s office this afternoon. How much did you hear of what we were saying?’
‘Enough I think to understand why you agreed with the report on your survey.’
‘You knew all the time I wasn’t being honest with you?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘It was only when Jean Lucas confirmed that you’d been enthusiastic about the prospects of finding oil in the Kingdom that I began to put two and two together.’
‘I see.’ He turned away again towards the window. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, still with his back to me. ‘I thought you were just out to get the best price you could for the property. I thought… Hell!’ he said, turning sharply and facing me. ‘I was scared of losing my trucks. I’ve a lot of dough tied up in that equipment and if Trevedian had refused to bring them down the hoist-’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘All I’ve made in years of flying and in prospecting since the war is invested in that outfit.’