Polly and Eleanor Part 14

"How do you know what I need!" retorted Eleanor. "Polly and I need money this Fall, as we are going to go away to school together--somewhere. And she can't go unless she has her own money, 'cause her father won't consent to her leaving home, but her mother will--so she will have to have her own money to get away with, see?"

"No, I don't see that that will work," Kenneth interpolated.

"Why not? If Mr. Brewster finds Polly is going, anyway, he will soon enough give his consent," argued Eleanor.

"I never said I would go away to school with you, Nolla, although I should like it better than going alone. And I'm sure I couldn't _think_ of leaving home if Daddy objected to it," said Polly seriously.

"Oh, well, I know you won't, but a lot of money of your very own will help coax him to our way of thinking," explained Eleanor.

"You seem to think your mine will turn out money in time for you to spend it this Fall," ventured Kenneth, amusedly.

"Why, of course it will, if we can get at it through that land-slide,"

returned she.

"Other mines take from one to ten years to prepare for and operate. If you do the thing right, and have engineers plan for the apparatus to work the ore, you won't be spending that gold this year," added Jim.

"No! Then what good will it do Polly or me? I have a fine idea that I want to perfect right away, and it needs money. I haven't even told Polly a word of it, as I must see how much money we get from the mine before I mention it."

"But once your mine begins to pay it will keep on paying for ever so long. You can plan to spend all the money you can possibly use, if the mine has any kind of vein in it," said Kenneth, soothingly.

"I believe in taking a 'bird in the hand instead of the one in the bush,' and here is a fortune right on this wall!" said Jim, pointing at the jeweled cliffs.

He picked up a handful of the colored lava-stones and showed them to Kenneth. "Do you know, Ken, that I wouldn't be one bit surprised but what that new patent your father got out for cutting rare gems would work on these to some good."

"I never thought of that! Maybe it would. If only he could come here to investigate and try his machine on the jewels."

"Why not send him a small box-full of the stones and let him experiment on them with the model he has in father's office?" asked Jim, eagerly.

"If Polly will give us some--I will send them on with a letter of explanation," returned Kenneth.

"Of course! Take all you want. Every one is welcome to them," said Polly, breaking off a cl.u.s.ter of fresh stones from the wall.

"What are you talking about, Jim? I heard Bob say something about a new patented machine that would make millions out of these Cliffs, but what do _you_ mean?" asked Eleanor.

"I guess we were both speaking of the same idea," replied Jim. "You see, my father is financing the wonderful patent Ken's father invented. Dr.

Evans is a great inventor, and every once in a while he has a big idea.

That was how he planned the vacuum sweepers, and the self-stop on the victrolas. He has lots of unusual patents granted him, and now he has this idea patented.

"He can cut a stone so that it surpa.s.ses any hand-cut jewel for facets and beauty, by merely dropping the material into the feeder on the machine and letting it cut out the jewel in a few moments. The size of stone wanted can be regulated by a screw. And the small bits of refuse left after making large jewels, can be cut into sparkling chips.

"My father and Uncle George incorporated the company that is financing this cutting machine. Now they can try out this lava and see if it is hard enough to cut brilliantly."

"Wouldn't it be lovely to have Ken's father use these lava jewels in his company, and let Nolla and me have the royalty to send us to school?"

ventured Polly, wistfully, looking at the distant peak where her gold mine seemed lost for the present.

Jim and his friend were selecting the finest specimen of the lava as Polly spoke, so they made no reply. Her eyes traveled along the Top Notch Trail and finally came back to the Cliffs at home. She watched the boys gather the stones and suddenly remembered Kenneth's likeness to Montresor.

"Oh, Kenneth! I 'most forgot to ask you something!" cried she.

Ken stood up and looked at her with a broad smile. As he waited thus, she was struck by the singular look that was so like her old friend's.

"That gold mine we told you boys about, was first found and staked by a white-haired man who called himself Montresor. He lost it again in just the same way as we did--a land-slide buried it and his stakes, and no one could locate it again.

"Then he died and left his claim to me. I always believed he had one, but every one else laughed at him and said he was crazy. Father was good to him after the mine was lost, and took his part when folks jeered. When he died, Daddy paid for the funeral and has the certificate where he is buried. But we never learned who he was, except the fact that he came from the East, although we advertised a lot.

"Just the day you arrived in Oak Creek, Mr. Simms, our lawyer, read a letter which Old Man Montresor left. It was written to a wife and child, but there was no name or address on it. Then I heard how father spent lots of money trying to identify the dear old man and trace his relatives but to no account.

"When we first saw you, we-all were impressed with your resemblance to our old friend. So now I want to ask you if there ever was any one in your family who went to the Klondike and was reported lost there?"

"Wh-y, ye-es, there is some such story in our family, but I do not know the exact truth about it. And we seldom discussed it as mother always felt badly afterwards.

"As far as I can understand it, my mother's only brother Peter was a clever mining engineer in the East, but he was too ambitious to be contented with his income. Mother says it was his wife who wanted to spend money like water, who finally urged him to try his luck in Alaska--and he left home to seek wealth in the Klondike.

"He placed all the money he had in the bank for his family, and left Aunt Ada and my Cousin Gail with sufficient to live on if they were economical. But my Aunt was not content with a simple home and a meager income, and thought to add to her comfort and wealth by starting a fine boarding-house.

"She knew nothing about the business, however, and soon lost all the money she had been left with and then she ran in debt. When her investment was sold out, she came to us for help. She and Cousin Gail lived with us for two years; then Aunt Ada had pneumonia and died. She begged us to adopt Gail as she had never heard from Uncle after he wrote to her to send him money to get out of Nome. But she had none, so she never told mother about this letter; we would have helped poor Uncle.

"As it was a year since he wrote that letter, and he was in wretched health while in the far North, mother felt sure that he had succ.u.mbed to the cold and his discouragement. Aunt Ada left a note in which she said that Gail and I were to share like brother and sister in anything Uncle Peter left us.

"But mother always laughed at the idea that there would be any wealth coming to us from the Klondike. She said the only precious legacy we could claim in the gold-fields of Alaska was the untiring energy and earnestness Uncle was sure to use wherever he went or whatever he did.

But she wrote to the postmaster at Nome and received word that her brother was dead.

"Gail was always delicate, and a year after her mother died, she, too, took sick and was gone in a week's time. So mother tried to forget her dear brother after these sad experiences, and it is only at rare intervals that any one mentions his name to her."

When Kenneth finished telling his story, Polly asked eagerly: "But you haven't told us your uncle's name--nor your mother's maiden name. Was it Montresor?"

"Oh no! Just a plain New England name--mother is called Priscilla Amesbury, and my uncle was Peter Amesbury. I never heard of a Montresor in our family, either. But that doesn't say the old gentleman couldn't have chosen an a.s.sumed name, you know."

Eleanor and Polly were plainly disappointed that the names of the Klondike uncle and the hero of Polly's life, were not the same. Jim laughed when he saw the girls' evident regret.

"Any one would think you two girls were anxious to share your gold-mine with the heir of old Montresor. Now what is there to hinder me from claiming the old man as _my_ uncle and telling you he is a twin-brother of my father's? That will make me the heir to that mine."

"We wouldn't believe you, because you haven't one bit of resemblance to this friend Polly knew, but Kenneth has. That is why it may turn out that Montresor really was his uncle," said Eleanor.

As the sun went down back of Rainbow Cliffs, the two boys regretfully said good-by. Mrs. Brewster planned for them to come and spend the following Sunday at Pebbly Pit with John and Tom there, provided the crew was not too far removed for the trip.

The boys promised to send word by mail, as Jake rode to Oak Creek two or three times a week, and could mail a note from them if they were to be within riding distance.

"We might even find a way to lose the valuable transit and then have to come and hunt for it," laughed Kenneth, as they got into their saddles for the return ride.

"But you didn't find the tripod! What will Jake say?" asked Polly, anxiously.

"We'll let you know next Sunday," laughed both the boys.

That night when Jake smuggled his two horses back to the corral with the crew's mounts, he turned to the boys and said:

"Whar did you-all leave it?"