‘Yeah.’ He nodded slowly. ‘That’s reasonable, I guess. What about the cable? Will it take my equipment?’
‘I don’t know what the breaking point is,’ I said. ‘But I’ve been up it and from what I’ve seen it’ll take about three or four times the tonnage that can be got on to the cage.’ I turned to Boy. ‘You brought your trucks up by it last year. What’s your view? Will it take Garry’s rig?’
‘I don’t think you need worry about that, Garry,’ he said. ‘It’s like Bruce says. The thing is built to carry a heavy tonnage.’
He nodded slowly. ‘And how do you propose we get the use of this hoist? As I understand it, there’s a guard at the entrance to Thunder Creek, another at the hoist terminal and near the terminal there’s a camp. I’ll have five, possibly six trucks-’ He hesitated. ‘Yes, it will be at least six trucks if we’re to haul in everything we need for the whole operation, including fuel and pipe.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s a heck of an operation, you know. We’ll need two tankers for a start and two truck-loads of pipe. Then there’s the rig, draw works, all equipment, tools, spares, everything. And casing.’ He hesitated and looked at Boy. ‘We’d have to take a chance on that. In this sort of country it might be all right. Well, say seven trucks. That’ll mean a minimum of four to five hours at the hoist. Now how the hell do you think you’re going to fix that?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘At least, I think I know, but I’ve not worked out all the details yet. Anyway, that’s my problem. If you’re game to try I’ll give you an undertaking to get your equipment up here. If I fail I’ll undertake to make good any loss you have sustained. How’s that?’
‘Very generous,’ he said. ‘Except that I understood you only possess a few hundred dollars.’
‘I’d sell the Kingdom,’ I said, ‘to meet the obligation.’
‘To Fergus? But-’ He stopped and looked down at his hands. ‘Knowing how you feel about this place…’ He hesitated, sucking on his cigar. Then he lumbered to his feet. ‘Okay, Bruce,’ he said, gripping my hand. ‘You get my stuff up here and I’ll accept your proposition and drill you a well.’ He hesitated. ‘That is, providing Winnick gives me a written report on the two traverses when they’re completed and that report is good.’
We settled down then to work out the details. Everything that would he required from the time Garry spudded in to the time he brought in a well, presuming that he did, would have to be trucked in on the one operation. It meant buying or hiring trucks and tankers. It worked out at seven vehicles.
Seven separate trips on the hoist with difficult loadings between each trip. Boy was a help here for he was able to give us some idea of the time he had taken to load his trucks and off-load them at the other end. It meant allowing forty minutes minimum for each truck, to cover loading, the trip up to the dam, off-loading and the running down of the empty cage. We went through all the stores we should require — tools, spares, pipe, casing, food, cigarettes, bedding, oils, mud chemicals suitable for all types of strata; an endless list. Bill and Don agreed to stay on and become roughnecks, so that additional personnel was reduced to six, which allowed two teams of four and the rest of us available to cook, hunt, stand in for anyone sick and generally organise the operation.
We finished just after two in the morning and went to bed, but for ages I couldn’t get to sleep as my mind went over and over the lists we had made out. Several times I switched on my torch and made a note of something that had occurred to me. Under the agreement that I was making with Boy and Garry the drilling was their responsibility, but I was convinced that neither of them fully appreciated what the situation would be once we had got the rig and equipment up to the Kingdom. There would be no going down for things we had forgotten. We would be isolated up here in the mountains. Trevedian would see to that. Anything we had omitted from our lists we would have to do without. I had explained this to them, but Garry had shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘Sure, but there’s always the pony trail.’ I had left it at that. I saw no reason to scare him by explaining to him the lengths to which I should have to go to carry out my side of the bargain and get the rig up the hoist.
Boy took Garry down the next day. ‘If everything goes well I’ll be seeing you in about three weeks,’ Garry said as he shook my hand. And then he added, ‘You’re sure you can get us up the hoist?’
‘If I don’t I’ve got to sell up to pay your expenses,’ I said. ‘Isn’t that enough of a guarantee?’
‘Sure and it is, but I’d like to know just how you’re going to fix it. A bit of bribery and corruption, eh?’ He laughed and slapped me on the shoulder.
If he liked to think it could be done by bribery … I smiled and said nothing.
‘Well, see you let me have details before I bring my convoy up.’
‘I will,’ I said. ‘I’ll mail you full instructions in advance.’
‘Okay.’ He nodded and hauled himself up on to his horse. ‘Be seeing you, Bruce.’ He waved his hand and started up towards the Saddle.
When Boy got in that night he was packing the haunches of a deer on the back of his saddle. Stocks of canned food were running low and fresh meat was a welcome sight. All we lacked was flour to bake bread.
In the days that followed Boy and the rest of his team worked from first light till darkness to complete the longitudinal traverse. All the time the geophysical work was going on we were very conscious of the growing activity at the dam. Each day when the weather was good I rode up to an outcrop above the buttress and had a look at what they were doing. Once when it was fine I climbed a shoulder of the northern peak of Solomon’s Judgment. From this eyrie I could see the camp. It was now clear of all sapling growth with paths beginning to be worn between the quarters and the dining hall and the cookhouse and the latrines. It seemed filling up with men. Trucks were coming into the hoist regularly. As soon as they were off-loaded a grab crane filled them up with hard core from the slide and they went out loaded with stone. Farther down the valley I caught glimpses through my glasses of road gangs working, spreading hard core on sections where the surface was breaking up.
Two days later the peace of the Kingdom was shattered by an explosion that ran a thundering echo round the mountains. I didn’t need to ride out to my rock outcrop to know what it was. They were blasting at the quarries on either side of the dam. The construction work had begun. When I did get up to my vantage point I saw the whole area of the dam crawling with workers. Rails were laid out and tip wagons were trundling back and forth. Giant cement mixers were rattling away and loads of rock were being slung across by cable to the centre of the dam.
The race was on and we hadn’t even got our rig up.
‘How long do you reckon they’ll take?’ Boy asked when he got in that night. His dark face was sullen and moody.
‘We’ve plenty of time,’ I said.
But it had a depressing effect on all of us. After supper we all walked as far as the buttress. There was a young moon and we wanted to see what the new construction looked like. My one fear was that they’d work at night. But I suppose it was too cold that early in the season to work shifts round the clock. As it was they had to use large quantities of straw to protect the new concrete from frost. We went down as far as the hoist. In the queer light everything looked flat and white, a dead world from which men seemed suddenly to have vanished leaving the orderly evidence of their industry behind them.
‘I think I never saw such starved ignoble nature,’ Boy quoted. And then he added, ‘It seems the ultimate in futility — all this effort to build a hundred-foot high rampart and all around Nature has raised great peaks to seven and eight thousand feet.’
‘Isn’t that the measure of our greatness?’ Don said. ‘We go on, whatever the odds.’
‘Ants,’ Bill said. ‘It’s all comparative. Compare these peaks with the stars, with the limitlessness of space.’