thread her needle again.
'Do you blame me?' he asked.
'Of course not. Not for myself, I don't. I am not so sure for Jeremy. But then 'tis done, and no good will come now of talking of it.' She hesitated, pushing her dark hair away from her forehead as if it was some unwelcome thought. 'Do you think Elizabeth is in so much need?'
'I think she was. Why?'
Well, I have heard that George Warleggan is being very obliging to her.
'I've no doubt he would be if she would let
him, 'But she
will not. Who spoke to you of it?'
'Sir Hugh Bodrugan.'
'Has he been here again?'
'Yes, he came to call one afternoon last week. He was passing, he said.'
'You didn't tell me'
'I forgot. He wanted for us to go to the Meet, at his house last week. I said we had another engagement because I knew you would not go.'
He
bent to
light his pipe, but the mouthpiece would not draw so he knocked, out the tobacco and began to fill it afresh. He was surely the last
person now to complain either
at
someone's
fancy for his wife or at her failure to tell him of a passing visit. But perhaps the irritation he felt rose not from Sir Hugh's visit but from what he had said.
'One of
George Warleggan's ambitions
long before Francis died, was to drive a wedge between them and me, and the easiest way to attempt it was by befriending them. Once he succeeded, and both Francis and I suffered as a result.
In trying to help Elizabeth now, he is only continuing the same tactics. Although that wasn't my aim in arranging for her to get this money, it does have the effect of strengthening her hand against him.'
'Yes,' said Demelza, and, went on with her sewing,
On the twelfth of March
which was a Tuesday, Captain
Henshawe came to see Ross in the library, where Ross was working. There was a peculiar expression on his face, and he carried a small sack which he put down on the floor while he took
off his hat
and wiped his forehead.
'You're hot?' said Ross. 'You'll soon cool off here. There's a draught that's been mislaid from January blowing under the door. What's that, the last of our coal?'
Henshawe said `Young Ellery's just come up and brought this bag with him. I thought you might like to see what was in it, sur.'
He emptied the bag on the floor. There were about a dozen pieces of quartzose rock, not noticeably different
from
a thousand others that had
been mined
and crushed in the last twelve months. Henshawe's eyes travelled curiously over Ross's face as
Ross looked at them.
`Pick 'em up,' said Henshawe.
Ross did so, weighed one or two in his hand, put them on
his desk, tried a couple more. Very heavy. `What is it
-
lead?' `Tin.'
`What sort of proportion?'
`Goodly. There's a thin streak or two of copper, as you can see, and some siliceous minerals. It's in that main
shaft we've been sinking below
the sixty fathoms. Plumb light-blue killas. They come on it today.'
`You've been down?'
'Yes. They've been driving, through granite and hard black killas, as you know; but they passed out of that yesterday,
following the eastward split of the old copper lode, as
we decided. There's been tin
mixed with it for twenty fathoms, but never in much quantity, and the copper even poorer: Indeed, as you know, 'twas only just alive., This
is the first
time there's been any
tin
indications.'
`Is there any size to
the thing?'
'This is from a
reg'lar bunch of ore,
as you can tell by the weight.
The lode is narrower than ‘
twas, and generally comby; but this bunch is six feet or more across, and we don't know how deep.'
Ross tilted his chair back and stared at his desk. `I was in the process of closing the books of the mine. Saturday is the end of it. The infidels from Wheal Radiant are coming nearer to, my price for the headgear. I have kept them waiting
for two days
as a busines
s tactic, but I shall send over
tomorrow
and accept,’
'And this?'
Ross turned over a piece of the rock with his foot. `As we
have spent eighteen m
onths and all our money seeking
copper,
you can hardly expect me to become excited over the discovery
of a small parcel of tin'
'From the look of it below, I should say it was worth a
second thought.’
'Do you wa
nt me to come down?' `Yes. I'd
like for you to., `Who found it??
'Ellery and Green.'.
`And 'they .think they've discovered El Dorado?'
`They're keen enough, as you'd imagine. After so much
wasted effort. . . .' `In their eyes it appears much bigger than it really is, eh?'
Henshawe said cautiously 'I'd like for you to see it before we say more about' that.'
Ross got up and shut his ledgers. They went out and began to walk across the valley. Low grey cloud was blowing across the sun, and the thin smear of smoke from the mine chimney merged and blew away with it. Farther west, rifts in the shifting canopy showed distant sky, blue and pale-green and misty indigo. It was a quiet day and should have been mild, but some northern air had infected it and the wind was chill. The trees in the valley were still as black as mid-winter.
There had been silence all the way. As th
ey neared the mine, Ross looked
up at the slow, measured swing of the balance bob. Trevithick had said the engine would last fifty years, and no doubt he was right given the opportunity. Ross could tell that Henshawe was quietly very interested in this discovery; but there had been so many bitter disappointments that in self-defence he would not allow himself to perceive any novelty in this one. And unless they had actually struck, a bed of tin which
, needed the absolute
minimum of further outlay, with a quick return for what was raised, there was no chance at all of keeping the mine in operation, In any case, tin was basically less profitable than copper, the ore being so much more expensive to extract at surface. There had bee
n tin mines in this area before
Grambler had begun as one in the seventeenth-century
-
and there were still a
few alluvial
workings, two
or three-man concerns eking out an
existence;
but he had never seriously thought of finding or mining the mineral in any big way. And the tin industry was stil
l in a depressed condition; no
one would be willing to finance an exhausted copper mine on the strength of a few samples of rock.
They went down, and Ross
inspected the
find Work had stopped in
other parts of the mine only th
e great engine still patiently sucked water out of the sump and men were more or less taking it in turns to pick at the rock, weighing this lump and that in their work-seamed hands, bending over it and talking and nodding and comparing experiences of the past. Most of
them were stripped to the
waist, for the heat
had much increased in the last
twenty fathoms. Ross took the pick himself and worked away for a few minutes, while Ellery stood beside him pointing out the breadth and inclination of the lode.
Ross didn't say much; every one of the workers knew the state of
things in ; the mine, but everyone no doubt hoped this would just make the difference. He did not disillusion them, for that would come soon enough.
On the way up. again_ he said to Henshawe: 'I agree. It is not unimpressive.'
`You said all along you had the feeling
to go deeper.! 'Yes,
but, not for tin, man, not for tin. Anyway it may
still
be the merest pocket.'
As they reached the top an
d the now apparently bright day
gr
eeted them, he added `I'm glad
Ellery; found it He and his partner are good men. We can get what little they have time to bring up stamped and dressed, and it will make a difference to their last earnings.' '
`They'll take it some hard to be deprived of the chance to work a few weeks more. They would have given up more easier if, there had been no such find. What we need's a breathing
space to see what this means.'
'I agree, but where's it to come from? Who's to pay?? I tell you frankl
y I haven't twenty pounds in the
world.'
Henshawe said `I'd never much faith in you seeking the lodes at a greater depth. It's not been my experience in this district
-
they die on you
. But this has
a keenly look to me. And it's queer; copper under tin you expect
-
but n
ot tin under copper.'
`Well, there's four days still to go'. They'd be advised to work hard until Saturday.'
Ross did not tell Demelza of the discovery. There was no virtue in raising false hopes. But the whisper spread behind his back, and in no time she had heard of it and wanted to know what it meant.
'It means nothing,' Ross said. 'At best it would be a minor,
lottery prize. A few months ago
we could have worked it as a side product; no one objects to an additional mineral, and the receipts from it would have kept us
struggling a while longer. But ther
' is nothing more to it than that. It will be a blow t
o many families when the: mine
closes, and I suppose it is not unnatural that they should be hoping for the impossible!
'So was I,' said Demelza, and after that
nothing
more was said.
Nothing more until Thursday evening, when Captain Henshawe called. He found them both at home, so the conversation took place before Demelza.
`I've just been down again sur. They've opened of her up a tidy bit since Tuesd
ay. More and more it look to me
like a lode of value and not just a freak bunch. The stuff that's come up, as you know, is as rich as you'd want, It go more and more against the grain
to let her fill with water at
the
present stage.'
Ross frowned his discomfort. 'It goes against the g
rain to let her fill with water
at any stage. Let someone only provide the coal to keep the pump working
`That's what
I
been thinking,' said Henshawe apologetically.
`What d'vou mean?'
`I been thinking that if I'm eagerer than you I'm also the more, able to back m
y judgment. Leisure is doing a
fine job for me and I've made savings. Not all that big, but I could see us through a mo
nth or more. I could put down
a hundred pound if need be. It seems only right, and I'd be willing to do that'
Ross stared at him. 'You would?'
`Yes, I would.'
Ross
had known Henshawe for twelve years, since he was made mine captain at Grambler. He was an honest man and a clever one. His educ
ation, he sometimes said,, had
cost his father a penny a week for eight months. He had raised
himself – at
one time
before the depression
came
-
to a
position of consulting manager
to five mines solely on the strength of
his own ability
and acumen: His friendship with Ross had grown closer ever since the opening of
Wheal Grace. But Ross had no fear
that Henshawe was making this offer as
a gesture of friendship or
on a charitable impulse of the moment. Unlike certain other people who mig
ht be brought to mind, Henshawe
had never disguised the fact that he felt his first duty to be to his own wife and family.; He would perhaps have-given five pounds to save a friend from prison; but nothing would have induced him to risk a further, hundred pounds
of hard gleaned
capital in, a mining venture which
had already absorbed so much unless..”
Ross met Demelza's eyes across the room. He knew what she-was thinking.
`Are you wholly satisfied, then, that this thing is worth pursuing? After all the other, failures you feel so sure of this. .
`Not sure, sur. But I thought to proceed slowly., In
another week we shall know far
more. If 'tis disappointing we can still close and I shall have lost twenty or twenty-five pound, If it go on as I think it will go on, I'll back it for a month longer. But are must move tomorrow. I thought with your
permission I'd send over
to Trevaunance or Basset's Cove for coal to carry on. 'Twill only just reach us in time.'
'Send over by all means,, said Ross, but
neither his face nor his voice was easy to read. He was carefully combating a feeling within him which he was afraid to recognise as hope.
On the same day towards the evening George Warleggan went to see his father, and mother at Cardew, and told them that Elizabeth Poldark had promised to be his wife.