The Vicar's People Part 55

I'll give you another fifty."

"Shake hands," said the man; and Tregenna unwillingly placed his white beringed fingers in the miner's h.o.r.n.y paw, to take them out afterwards red and crushed.

"I'll trust you, Lannoe, and you must trust me."

"Right, master," said the miner. "Then look here. Where--"

"That will do," said Tregenna. "I want to know nothing. I'll hear nothing. Come to me some day when you think it wise, and there is the money for you."

He pointed to the door, and the man nodded and went away.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

UNDER THE SEA.

Busy times in Wheal Carnac. There had been plenty of visitors in the shape of managers of different mines, to whom the news had come; and all went away astounded at the wealth of the new vein. The demand for shares was enormous, but there were none to be had. Tregenna had had the last, taken to blind Mr Penwynn, and he had sold them to Dr Rumsey, who had invested the whole of his wife's little fortune in the mine, and the next morning after the news had spread, the doctor had hurried up to the cottage, where Geoffrey was seated at breakfast with Uncle Paul, an unusually fine sole from the trawler having brought them together.

Madge opened the door to the doctor, who shook hands with her in a friendly way; and then, as their eyes met, Madge's friendly smile changed into a look of fear, under the doctor's searching gaze. She flushed, then turned deadly pale, and ended by shrinking back with a piteous look, and holding up her hands in a pleading way.

Dr Rumsey's lips tightened, and he said quietly,--

"Tell Mr Trethick I am here."

"Come in, Rumsey," cried Geoffrey's hearty voice. "You're in time for breakfast, man. You are just right. Uncle Paul's as bilious as--as himself."

Madge was forgotten for the moment, and the doctor shook hands warmly with the young man and with Uncle Paul, as a chair was placed for him, and the bell rung for a cup and saucer and plate, for, truth to say, though the doctor had partaken of the morning meal, he sometimes rose from it with a better appet.i.te than was quite necessary for a proper fulfilment of the digestive functions.

"My dear Trethick," he cried, with the tears in his eyes, "G.o.d bless you for the hint! The news about the mine is glorious."

"That's right," said Geoffrey. "Eat your sole, man, before it gets cold," for a hot plate had been brought in by Madge herself, who seemed very eager to attend upon the visitor.

"You--you don't mean to say that you have been investing in mining shares, Rumsey?" cried Uncle Paul.

"Indeed, but I hope he has," said Geoffrey, heartily.

"I have: every penny we had," cried the doctor.

"More fool you!" cried Uncle Paul. "Why, Rumsey, how can you expect a man to trust you with his internal management if you go and do such insane things?"

"Uncle Paul don't believe in the mine even yet," said Geoffrey, laughing. "That will do, Miss Madge," he said; "I'll ring for more hot water if we want it."

The doctor saw Madge's appealing look at him, and a half-frightened glance at Geoffrey, and he saw too, as the girl left the room, that Uncle Paul was watching him very narrowly.

When he spoke again his manner was changed, and there was quite a coldness about it, which Geoffrey noticed.

"You hold on," he said, attributing it to nervousness caused by Uncle.

Paul's att.i.tude--"you hold on, Rumsey, and don't you be tempted at any price to sell. I warrant, my dear fellow, that you've made by that one stroke a handsome provision for your wife, more than you could have made by doctoring the whole county."

"Then why don't you invest?" snarled Uncle Paul.

"Because I've got no money," said Geoffrey, coolly. "Why don't you, who have?"

"Because I'm not quite such an old fool as you think."

The doctor warmed up again under the sunshine of Geoffrey's cheery ways, and soon after they were walking down towards the cliff, the doctor thanking Geoffrey again heartily as they parted, the one to make his rounds, the other to go to the busy mine.

Geoffrey had not gone half-way before he met old Prawle, coming direct from Wheal Carnac.

"Hallo, old man!" he cried. "How's poor mother? By Jove, I must come and see the dear old lady again."

"Better--better," said Prawle, hastily.

"That's well; and Miss Bessie?"

"Yes, yes, quite well," said the old man, hastily. "I want to see you."

"Come along down to my office. Been to the mine?"

"Yes, yes. I've been down."

"Ah, you old fox!" cried Geoffrey. "You wouldn't tell me, but you see we found it out."

"Yes, yes," said Prawle, still speaking in a hasty way, contrary to his wont. "I'll buy some shares."

"No, you won't," said Geoffrey, laughing.

"Why not, eh? You'll let me?"

"There isn't a share to be had, old man. No, sir, you are too late.

You, knowing what you did, Prawle, should have made friends, and taken your share of the good things."

The old man looked at him with a curiously sly expression of countenance.

"None to be had?" he said, dubiously.

"Not a share, Father Prawle: for those who hold them know their value now, and will not part."

The old fellow hesitated as if he half meant to say something, but he did not say it, and went his way; while Geoffrey went on to the mine, busied himself a little about some fresh arrangements for stampers and improved crushing apparatus, and then descended the mine to seek out Pengelly.

He found him hard at work superintending a gang of wielders of the pick, eager to make a goodly show of ore to send up to gra.s.s, and Geoffrey stopped about till the men went off to their dinners, when he and Pengelly had a long conversation about the state of the mine at this place.

"I've been measuring and calculating, Pengelly, and I find that you are so near the water here that not an inch must be cut on the face of the drive, rich as it is. We must go down, and trust to finding the lode right away."

"What, and leave this?" said Pengelly. "Why, it's madness."

"Madness or no, I shall not have it touched, Pengelly," said Trethick, firmly. "Lay your ear against the rock. You can almost feel the beat of the water. I make it that we are right out four hundred feet under the sea at high water. We must run no risks."