The Harris-Ingram Experiment Part 26

The recital of Custer's deeds nerved Alfonso to renewed efforts to win Christine's hand. He declined with thanks to join the captain's excursion party, and early next day rode south into the upper basin of the Park, which contains over 400 springs and geysers; many of the springs in their peculiar shapes, translucent waters, and variety and richness of color, are of exquisite beauty. Alfonso visited emerald and sapphire springs, where it is said nymphs, elfs, and fairies came to bathe, and don their dainty dress of flowers and jewelled dew drops.

Many bronzed tourists had a.s.sembled, and their faces showed amazement as they watched giant geysers in action. Suddenly the solid earth is tremulous with rumbling vibrations, like those that herald earthquakes.

Frightful gurgling sounds are audible in the geyser's throat. Sputtering steam is visible above the cone, the water below boils like a cauldron, and scalding hot, the eruption becomes terribly violent, belching forth clouds of smoke-like steam, and hurling rocks into the air as though a mortar of some feudal stronghold had been discharged. The stupendous column of hot water is veiled in spray as it mounts towards heaven.

Boiling water is flowing in brooks to the Firehole River, which is soon swollen to a foaming torrent washing away the bridges below. The valley is filled with dense vapors, and the air is laden with sulphurous fumes, while the hoa.r.s.e rumblings and subterranean tremors chill the heart.

Beneath your feet are positive evidences of eternal fires, and all about you the might of G.o.d. Alfonso was glad to leave this region of the supernatural.

He hastened across the Snake River, which winds through Idaho, and pushed on towards the Teton Range, one of many that form the Rocky Mts. In sight are snow-touched sentinel peaks kissed by earliest and latest sun. The Rocky Mts. or Great Continental Divide is a continuation of the famous Andes of South America, and jointly they form the longest and most uniform chain of mountains on the globe. Amid the gorges of this system of mountains, over 3000 miles in length, America's largest rivers have their birth, and find their outlet into the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans.

These mountains are vast vaults that will hold in trust for centuries to come untold supplies of precious metal for the American nations. This general fact did not concern Alfonso. He was ambitious to unlock for his own use only a single box of the huge vault. He was familiar with the wonderful story of Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, Kings of the Comstock Lode, and owners of the Big Bonanza, who paid their 600 miners five dollars per day in gold, for eight hours' labor a third of a mile below the earth's surface. The Comstock Lode yielded over $5,000,000 per month, or a total output of silver and gold of over $250,000,000.

For six long weary months Alfonso and his companion searched for gold down the Green River and along the river bottom of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, till they reached the Needles on the A. & P. Railway.

Thence they rode west to Kern River. This stream they followed on horseback into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, all the time searching for precious metals, especially gold. The mountains were crossed over to Owen's Lake, and a river traced north. Alfonso was prospecting in new fields, but his search thus far was fruitless. His companion sickened and died, but Alfonso bravely climbed among the mountains hoping to cross the crest and reach the cabins of friendly government officials on duty in the park of the big trees in Mariposa County.

It was late in the fall, gra.s.ses and leaves had browned, Alfonso's horse had grown thin, and being too weak and lame to go forward, finally died.

His provisions had given out; his own strength and courage had failed; he needed water for his parched tongue and lips, but none was at hand; fever quickened his pulse. Sitting alone in the shadow of a giant boulder that afforded partial protection from the gathering storm, his mind reverted to his home at Harrisville where abundance could be had, to his family that thought him dead, and to Christine across the sea, whom he had vowed to win with gold. All seemed lost. Alfonso's head reeled, he fell back upon the ground, and the early snows seemed to form for him a shroud.

Good fortune guided this way a party of Yosemite Indians, who were returning from an extended hunt for deer and elk. They had also slain a few bears and a couple of mountain lions. The dead horse first arrested their attention, and then the exhausted miner was found asleep covered with snow. The Indians wrapped the sick man at once in a grizzly bear skin, fastened him to a pony, and carried him to their camp near the big trees. It was morning before Alfonso was conscious of his surroundings.

Standing by him was a shy Indian maiden with a dish of hot soup. His bed, he discovered was in a burned-out cavity of one of the big trees. Near by were several tepees, the tops of which emitted smoke. Straight, black-haired Indians in bright blankets moved slowly from tent to tent.

Alfonso scarcely conscious had strange dreams. Sometimes he thought he was in the Hodoo Region, or Goblin Land, the abode of evil spirits, where he saw every kind of fantastic beast, bird, and reptile, and no end of spectral shapes in the winding pa.s.sages of a weird labyrinth on a far-off island. Then his dreams were of rare beauty. Green foliage was changed to pure white, the trees became laden with sparkling crystals, roadways and streams were laid in shining silver, and geyser-craters enlarged in strange forms resembled huge white thrones in gorgeous judgment halls.

Such fleeting beauty suggested to Alfonso's feverish brain the supernatural, the abode perhaps of spirit beings. For days the medicine man and Mariposa, daughter of the Indian chief, watched and cared for Alfonso, whose life hovered over the grave.

Mariposa, Spanish for b.u.t.terfly, was a fit name for the pretty Indian maiden. She paid great deference not only to her tall father, Red Cloud, but to the pale faces whenever in their presence. For four years Mariposa, unusually bright, attended the Indian school at Carlisle, Pa.; when she returned to her wild home in the forest she was able to speak and read the language of the pale face, and beside she loved history and poetry.

One day, Alfonso's health having slowly improved, Mariposa put in his hands a small pine cone, the size of a hen's egg, and said, "Three years go by from the budding to the ripening of the seed of the sequoias, or big trees."

Alfonso did not know, till Mariposa told him that the big trees were called sequoia in honor of a Cherokee chief, Sequoyah, who invented letters for his people. She also told Alfonso that there were at least ten groves of big trees on the northern slope of the Sierra Nevada range; that some of the trees were thirty feet in diameter, and 325 feet in height; that sixteen Yosemite braves on their ponies had taken refuge from a terrible storm in the hollow of a single sequoia. Alfonso prized highly a cane, fashioned by the Indian maiden from a fallen Big Tree. The wood had a pale red tint, and was beautifully marked and polished.

Part of the Indian hunting party went forward with the game, while Mariposa, Red Cloud, and three Yosemite braves with their ponies, waited for the handsome pale face to recover partially. Then they rode with Alfonso among the Big Trees, past Wawona, toiling up long valleys, stopping now and then to cook simple food. The Indians followed a familiar trail up dark gulches, along steep grades, through heavy timber, skirting edges of cliffs and precipitous mountains, the ruggedness constantly increasing, till suddenly Mariposa conducted Alfonso to a high point where his soul was filled with enthusiasm. Mariposa, pointing to the gorge or canyon of extraordinary depth, which was floored with forest trees and adorned with waterfalls, said, "Here in the Yosemite (grizzly) Valley is the home of my people. Here we wish to take you until you are well. Will you go?"

Alfonso, still weak and pale, but trusting the Indian girl, replied "Yes." The young artist-miner had never seen such stupendous masonry; the granite walls that surrounded the valley were a succession of peaks and domes, from three thousand to four thousand feet high, all eloquent in thought and design. Alfonso began sketching, but Mariposa motioned him to put his paper aside, and the six Indian ponies with their burdens carefully picked their way into the paradise below.

Red Cloud, Mariposa, Alfonso, and the braves were received with expressions of joy unusual for the stolid red men, and Alfonso was given a tent to himself near the chief's big tepee, close by a broad clear stream, and in the shadow of large old oaks. Here for several days Alfonso tarried, grew stronger, and often walked with pretty Mariposa.

She taught him a novel method of trapping trout which thronged the river.

She had him sketch the reflection in Mirror Lake of cathedral spires and domes, of overhanging granite rocks, and tall peaks of wildest grandeur.

He also sketched several waterfalls fed by melting snow. Mariposa's favorite falls at the entrance to the valley made a single leap of hundreds of feet, and when the white spray was caught by the breezes and the sun, the lace-like mist, sparkling like diamonds, swayed gracefully in the winds like a royal bridal veil. "The highest of a series of cascades," Mariposa said, "was called 'The Yosemite Falls.'"

Here eagles soar above the Cap of Liberty and other granite peaks.

Robins, larks, and humming birds swarm in the warm valley, and abundance of gra.s.s grows in the meadows for the Indian ponies.

As Alfonso's strength increased, he walked more frequently with Mariposa along the banks of the river, by the thickets of young spruce, cedar, and manzanita with its oddly contorted red stems. At times, each vied with the other in bringing back echoes from the lofty granite walls of the valley.

One sunset, as Alfonso and Mariposa sat by the river bank, Alfonso holding the light redwood cane, the gift of the maiden, he took the shapely hand of Mariposa in his own and said, "Mariposa, I owe my life to you, and if I am ever rich I will come back and reward you."

"I shall miss you," said the maiden shyly, "I want no money; I am happy because you are well again."

"Mariposa, I have long searched for gold," said Alfonso, "but finally I lost courage, became sick, and you know the rest. You have a ring of beaten gold on your finger, did it come from near here?"

"My father gave it to me," was all that Mariposa would say about the ring as they separated for the night.

It was past midnight when Alfonso felt someone pulling at his shoulder.

There in the moonlight stood Mariposa beckoning him to come. Quickly dressing, Alfonso left his tent without speaking as the maiden put her fingers to her lips, and quietly following Mariposa they walked by the silver stream into a wild gorge. Graceful pines afforded cover for Mariposa and Alfonso, as swift of foot, they scaled high cliffs, till the Indian girl held aloft her hand, and above in a cleft of white quartz the yellow gold shone brightly in the moon's rays.

When the time came for Alfonso to leave the Yosemite Valley, one of nature's masterpieces, tears filled the eyes of lovely Mariposa. He earnestly thanked Red Cloud and his daughter, and, saying good-bye, mounted his pony, a gift from Mariposa, when the girl ran to him and whispered, "Here, Alfonso, is the ring; bring it back to me when you are rich, but you will forget Mariposa."

"No! no!" replied Alfonso, "I will bring back the ring, and you shall give it to the one who makes you his bride." Then the Indian girl turned her face toward the Bridal Veil Falls, and Alfonso rode sadly out of the valley.

After several years, still wearing the magic band of beaten gold, having developed the Mariposa Gold Mines into property worth millions, Alfonso left the far west to seek beautiful Christine.

CHAPTER XXV

WORKINGS OF THE HARRIS-INGRAM PLAN

A telegram received at Liverpool by Reuben Harris from Marquis Leo Colonna, who at the Colonel's request went on to Amsterdam, verified the facts as to Alfonso's death by drowning. Colonel and Mrs. Harris's journey back to America under leaden and unsympathetic skies was sad indeed.

George and Gertrude met them on the pier at New York. The next day at noon, in deep mourning, they received the remains of Lucille from the yacht "Hallena."

Ten days with Lucille on the pitiless ocean, and unable to exchange with her a word of love, had sunk deeply the iron of affliction into the soul of Harry Hall. He often wished that he had never been born. He dreaded every new sunset, as the darkness that gathered about his catafalque-yacht whispered to him of cruel fates, of rest in the deep sea, and of angels' songs. Like the silent vigils of certain watchful plants, Captain Hall carefully observed his compa.s.ses, studied the weather, and often wished that he too might cross over and rejoin Lucille.

Ten days went by before Colonel Harris visited the offices of the Harris-Ingram Steel Co. Then followed several meetings of the directors, at which it was finally decided to issue the following circular:

Official Notice, No. 27.

Offices of The Harris-Ingram Steel Co., 400 to 410 Brough Building, Harrisville, O.--

_To Whom, it may Concern_,--

For the purpose of better promoting the harmonious workings of capital and labor, The Harris-Ingram Steel Co., Limited, has been organized, and its scope of co-operation has been planned on the following basis.

Capital Stock of the Harris-Ingram Steel Company $5,000,000 Total number of shares 500,000 Par value each share $10

The liability of each stockholder is limited to the amount of stock held. Half of the entire stock of the corporation shall be owned by so-called "capital," and half by the employees of the company, or so-called "labor." The stock issued shall represent the actual cash expended upon the plant, and employed as a working capital. It is the wish of the management that each employee in the steel company shall own at least ten shares of the stock, and more, if he so desires.

All the stock bought is to be paid for in cash. A loan at 4% interest, equal to the par value of the stock, can be made by employees, when necessary, to purchase a limited amount of the stock. Ten per cent of the wages of all such employees will be retained as needed, which, with dividends actually earned by the stock, will be applied on the amounts due for the purchase of stock and real estate for a home. The new model town will be known as Harris-Ingram.

Two thousand acres of land near the mills will be properly allotted and improved by the company for homes for the employees, and practical architects have been secured. It is further the wish of the steel company that each employee shall own a good home. The size of each lot is 50 ft. x 200 ft. and the price per lot is $50 which is in proportion to the original cost and improvement of the allotment, so that the employees in advance will thus secure all the profits that result from any increased value of the lots. This is only just.

A Stock and Building Bureau will be established, and money, at 4%, will be furnished the employees to build comfortable homes. This bureau created and officered by the employees will attend to the purchase and sale of stock, lots, the construction of homes, and the payment for the same. When for any reason, an employee desires to sever his connection with the steel company, his stock in the company and his home, if sold, must first be offered at a fair price to the Stock and Building Bureau.

By this scheme capital and labor will have equal interests in the Harris-Ingram Steel Co., also an equal voice in the management of the steel company's welfare. Should capital and labor disagree, then the matter in dispute, with all the facts, and before any strike on the part of labor shall occur, shall at once be submitted to arbitration, and the decision of the arbitrators shall be final.

Signed by George Ingram, _President of The Harris-Ingram Steel Co_.