doubt. I brought the equipment. I knew you know how to use it, otherwise I’d’ve invited along any technician you named. Go ahead. Inspect the quartz veins in the boulders. Put samples through the crusher and assayer. Pan that brook, sift the lakeshore sands. My friend, you’ll find every indication that you’re sitting on a mother lode.”
De Smet shook his head like a man stunned. “Industry can’t use a lot of gold. Not for decades to come. The currency—”
“Yeh. That should be exciting, what happens to this hard currency you’re so proud of. Not to mention what happens to the wilderness, the majority of it that you don’t own, when the rush starts. And it’ll be tough to get labor for producing things we can merely eat and wear. You, though, Tom, you’ll become the richest man on Rustum.”
Coffin knocked the dottle from his pipe, stretched, and rose. “Go ahead, look around,” he suggested. “I’ll make camp. I’ve brought a collapsible canoe, and the fishing’s even better here than at Lake Royal.”
De Smet’s look searched him. “Do you … plan … to join the gold rush?”
Coffin shrugged. “Under the circumstances, we lowlanders won’t have much choice, will we?”
“I—See here, Dan—”
“Go on, Tom. Do your checking around, and your thinking. I’ll have lunch ready when you come back. Afterward we can go out on the water, and maybe dicker while we fish.”
He strode into the hospital room, grabbed Eva from her bed to him, and bestowed upon her a mighty kiss.
“Dan!” she cried low. “I didn’t expect—”
“Nor I,” he said, and laughed. “I never dared hope things’d go this fast or this well.” The sun stood at noon. “But they did, and it’s done, and from this minute forward, sweetheart, I am yours altogether and forever.”
“What-what—Dan, let me go! I love you, too, but you’re strangling me.”
“Sorry.” He released her, except to lower her most gently, bent over her, and kissed her again with unending tenderness. Afterward he sat down and took her hand.
“What’s happened?” she demanded. “Speak up, Daniel Coffin, or before heaven, I’ll personally wring the truth out of you.” She was half weeping, half aglow.
He glanced at the door, to make doubly sure he had closed it, and dropped his voice. “We’ve got our contract, Eva. Tom de Smet called in his counselor as soon as we returned, a couple hours ago, and we wrote a contract for the Smithy to come do work at Moondance, and you know Tom never goes back on his word. That’s one reason I was after him particularly.”
“You finally persuaded him? Oh, wonderful!”
“I s’pose you could call it persuasion. I—Okay, I’ve told you before, strictly confidentially, how my gang and I weren’t just doing research in the High American backwoods, we were trying for a mineral strike.”
“Yes. I couldn’t understand why the hurry.” Her tone did not accuse. Nor did it forgive. It said that now she saw nothing which needed forgiving, and merely asked for reasons. “I kept telling you, the minerals would wait, and the ecological trouble wasn’t that urgent.”
“But getting the contract I was after was.” He stared downward, and his free hand knotted into a fist. “I had to leave you mostly alone, and I knew it hurt you, and yet I didn’t dare explain even to you.”
She leaned over to kiss him afresh. When he could talk again, he said: “You see, machinery and engineers are scarce. The Smithy itself has none too big a supply. Any day, someone else might’ve instigated a project which’d tie everything up for years to come. And in fact, if word should leak out that we lowlanders might seriously bid, why, then chances were that somebody else would tie the Smithy up, and invent a project afterward. Not to suppress us or anything, but because it’s true that profits are higher here than amongst us.
“It wouldn’t’ve mattered if you, under anesthesia or whatever,
De Smet shook his head like a man stunned. “Industry can’t use a lot of gold. Not for decades to come. The currency—”
“Yeh. That should be exciting, what happens to this hard currency you’re so proud of. Not to mention what happens to the wilderness, the majority of it that you don’t own, when the rush starts. And it’ll be tough to get labor for producing things we can merely eat and wear. You, though, Tom, you’ll become the richest man on Rustum.”
Coffin knocked the dottle from his pipe, stretched, and rose. “Go ahead, look around,” he suggested. “I’ll make camp. I’ve brought a collapsible canoe, and the fishing’s even better here than at Lake Royal.”
De Smet’s look searched him. “Do you … plan … to join the gold rush?”
Coffin shrugged. “Under the circumstances, we lowlanders won’t have much choice, will we?”
“I—See here, Dan—”
“Go on, Tom. Do your checking around, and your thinking. I’ll have lunch ready when you come back. Afterward we can go out on the water, and maybe dicker while we fish.”
He strode into the hospital room, grabbed Eva from her bed to him, and bestowed upon her a mighty kiss.
“Dan!” she cried low. “I didn’t expect—”
“Nor I,” he said, and laughed. “I never dared hope things’d go this fast or this well.” The sun stood at noon. “But they did, and it’s done, and from this minute forward, sweetheart, I am yours altogether and forever.”
“What-what—Dan, let me go! I love you, too, but you’re strangling me.”
“Sorry.” He released her, except to lower her most gently, bent over her, and kissed her again with unending tenderness. Afterward he sat down and took her hand.
“What’s happened?” she demanded. “Speak up, Daniel Coffin, or before heaven, I’ll personally wring the truth out of you.” She was half weeping, half aglow.
He glanced at the door, to make doubly sure he had closed it, and dropped his voice. “We’ve got our contract, Eva. Tom de Smet called in his counselor as soon as we returned, a couple hours ago, and we wrote a contract for the Smithy to come do work at Moondance, and you know Tom never goes back on his word. That’s one reason I was after him particularly.”
“You finally persuaded him? Oh, wonderful!”
“I s’pose you could call it persuasion. I—Okay, I’ve told you before, strictly confidentially, how my gang and I weren’t just doing research in the High American backwoods, we were trying for a mineral strike.”
“Yes. I couldn’t understand why the hurry.” Her tone did not accuse. Nor did it forgive. It said that now she saw nothing which needed forgiving, and merely asked for reasons. “I kept telling you, the minerals would wait, and the ecological trouble wasn’t that urgent.”
“But getting the contract I was after was.” He stared downward, and his free hand knotted into a fist. “I had to leave you mostly alone, and I knew it hurt you, and yet I didn’t dare explain even to you.”
She leaned over to kiss him afresh. When he could talk again, he said: “You see, machinery and engineers are scarce. The Smithy itself has none too big a supply. Any day, someone else might’ve instigated a project which’d tie everything up for years to come. And in fact, if word should leak out that we lowlanders might seriously bid, why, then chances were that somebody else would tie the Smithy up, and invent a project afterward. Not to suppress us or anything, but because it’s true that profits are higher here than amongst us.
“It wouldn’t’ve mattered if you, under anesthesia or whatever,
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