Meanwhile Houston was deeply interested in the private meeting held in Haight's little dingy room, as he felt certain that some issues were being discussed and decisions reached that would, in their results, be of the greatest importance to him, and he awaited the reappearance of the general manager and secretary with considerable expectancy.

He was not disappointed; a glance at their faces revealed that the subjects under discussion had not been pleasant. Mr. Blaisdell's face was white, and set in hard, determined lines, while that of his companion was flushed with anger, and his cunning, crafty eyes were full of suspicion, as they glanced repeatedly in Houston's direction.

"Mr. Parsons," said Mr. Blaisdell, "we will have to ask you to excuse Mr. Houston, as we have a little business with him, and if you will step over there in the office and sit down, we will have completed our business in half or three-quarters of an hour; by that time the team will be here, in readiness to take us to the train."

After a few moments of desultory conversation about the work which Houston knew to be only preliminary, during which Mr. Rivers moved about in a nervous, restless manner, Mr. Blaisdell said:

"Mr. Houston, we hear some rather strange reports concerning your conduct lately; your actions have certainly been highly censurable, and the least that can be said is that you have exceeded your authority here in a very marked degree."

"In what respect have I exceeded my authority?" demanded Houston, folding his arms, with an expression on his face that made the general manager regret that he had begun the encounter; but it was too late to retreat, besides, Rivers was watching him!

"In your manner of discharging the duties a.s.signed to you; you have taken advantage of your position in the most reprehensible and unworthy way, and have overstepped the bounds when you had no right whatever to do so."

"I shall have to ask you to be a little more explicit, Mr. Blaisdell,"

Houston replied.

"Why don't you come to the point, Blaisdell?" said Rivers impatiently.

"What's the use of beating about the bush? The long and the short of it is just this," he added, turning to Houston, "you have been taking upon yourself what did not concern you, prying around, late at night, in mines with which you had nothing whatever to do, in company with miners who had no more business there than you had."

"To what mine do you refer?" asked Houston, with exasperating persistency.

"I mean the Lucky Chance, and you know it," retorted Rivers angrily.

"Mr. Rivers," said Houston, in a tone that Blaisdell had heard on a former occasion, and with a steel-like glitter in his eyes that was anything but attractive to either of the gentlemen present; "Mr.

Blaisdell knows, if you do not, that since my first coming here, whatever kind of work has been a.s.signed to me, I have thoroughly familiarized myself with it. When I was given charge of these mines I had reason to suppose that each and every mine owned by the company was included under my supervision, and if there were any which the officers of the company, for reasons of their own, wished excluded from such supervision, it was their business so to inform me. I have not been so informed. Mr. Blaisdell himself took me into that mine, and nothing was said to lead me to suppose that that mine was any exception to those placed in my charge, and your informant, if he chose so to do, could tell you that I have inspected in like manner each and every mine under my supervision, taking with me one or both of the same men, when the mine happened to be one with which I was not familiar."

"His intentions were all right," interposed Mr. Blaisdell, "he was over-zealous, that was all."

"Intentions be d.a.m.ned!" said Mr. Rivers, angrily, "he was altogether too officious, and I won't have it; people in my employ have to know their place and keep it."

"That is all very well," said Houston, in cutting tones, "but I will not ask you, Mr. Rivers, or any one connected with this company, to tell me my place."

"What!" exclaimed Rivers in a rage, "let me tell you, young man, it is to your interest to be a little careful."

"Is it?" answered Houston scornfully; "Mr. Rivers," he added, advancing toward that gentleman, "why don't you discharge me? Wouldn't that be to your interest?"

Mr. Rivers saw he had gone too far; "No," he answered quickly, though sullenly, "we have said nothing about discharging you; you are too efficient a man for us to lose."

"No, Houston," added Mr. Blaisdell, "we wouldn't think of discharging you, you're too good a man."

"No, I'm not too good a man," replied Houston, facing them both with a look which they understood; "you don't discharge me simply because,--you don't dare to!" and he emphasized the last words with a heavy blow upon a rude desk standing near.

Blaisdell and Rivers exchanged glances, and for a moment were speechless. The former was the first to recover himself.

"Come, Houston," he said, in a conciliatory tone, "we won't have any more words; we all understand one another pretty well, and there'll be no more complaints or trouble. You go on pretty much as you have done, and it will be all right. It's time we were getting back now, but I'll be out here next week with Barden, and we'll fix things up satisfactory all 'round."

"When will he get here?" asked Houston.

"The latter part of next week."

Houston thought an instant, his party would be there the first or middle of the week.

"Very well," he replied, "I tender my resignation now, to take effect when he comes."

"Oh, no, Houston, no indeed, why, we couldn't think of such a thing,"

said Blaisdell, really alarmed, while Rivers maintained a sullen silence.

"I am not particularly anxious to hold this position, I can a.s.sure you; there is very little in it but hard work."

"Oh, well, well, you stay by us a while longer, and we'll take you into the company yet."

"No," said Houston, "it would be no use taking me into the company, I wouldn't know my place, or keep it," and with that parting shot, he turned and left them.

"Blaisdell," said Rivers, his face relaxing for a moment into a grim smile, "it's just as I told you, your smart young man is too smart for you. It's my opinion we've caught a tartar;--we're afraid to keep him, and we don't dare let him go."

CHAPTER XL.

As Houston, on the following morning, in the execution of his daily round of duties, happened to be pa.s.sing the Yankee Boy mine, his attention was arrested by a quant.i.ty of powder deposited near the mouth of the shaft, which the workmen were preparing to take below.

"What is the meaning of this?" he inquired sternly. "Who has given any orders for this powder to be brought here?"

"Them was the boss's orders, sir," replied one of the men, respectfully.

"The boss? whom do you mean?"

"Begging your pardon, sir, I meant the boss as was up here yisterday; Mr. Haight, he told me this morning as these was the orders he give him."

"Haight," said Houston, as, a few moments later, he entered the office of that individual, "did Mr. Blaisdell leave orders yesterday for powder to be taken over to the Yankee Boy mines?"

"Yes," replied Haight, with his usual smile, "and I intended to have spoken to you about it this morning, but I forgot it."

"What is his object? any blasting to be done?"

"Yes, we had quite a long consultation together yesterday, he and Rivers and I, and we decided that it would pay to do some extensive drifting in those mines, and a good deal of that rock will have to be blasted."

"How soon is this blasting to begin?"

"Well, I can't say exactly, just how soon, probably within the next seven or eight days."

"In what direction is the drifting to extend?"

Haight looked slightly surprised but replied: "We're a little undecided about that, just what course to take; Rivers was for one thing, and Blaisdell and I for another. After they have blasted a ways, we can tell something from the character of the rock in what direction it will be best to run the drift."

After a few more questions, some of which Haight did not answer so readily as might have been expected, Houston left him. He did not proceed at once to the building where Van Dorn was at work, but first returned to the mines, where he discovered that the powder was not only being stored in the Yankee Boy group, but also in the Lucky Chance, and one or two others of the surrounding mines. A little later he made an errand to that part of the mills where Van Dorn was to be found, and quietly calling him to one side, related to him what he had discovered, and his talk with Haight.