Campbell's Kingdom (14 page)

I don't think he heard me for he turned away towards the window. ‘When you spoke to me after tea this evening I didn't know you'd immigrated to Canada, prepared to live up in the Kingdom and start out where Stuart had left off.' He turned suddenly round on his heels, a quick, lithe movement. ‘Why didn't you tell me that?'

‘I didn't see any necessity,' I murmured.

‘No, of course not.' He lit a cigarette with quick, nervous movements. I had the feeling of something boiling up inside him. ‘You were outside Trevedian's office this afternoon. How much did you hear of what we were saying?'

‘Enough I think to understand why you agreed with the report on your survey.'

‘You knew all the time I wasn't being honest with you?'

‘No,' I said. ‘It was only when Jean Lucas confirmed that you'd been enthusiastic about the prospects of finding oil in the Kingdom that I began to put two and two together.'

‘I see.' He turned away again towards the window. ‘I'm sorry,' he said, still with his back to me. ‘I thought you were just out to get the best price you could for the property. I thought . . . Hell!' he said, turning sharply and facing me. ‘I was scared of losing my trucks. I've a lot of dough tied up in that equipment and if Trevedian had refused to bring them down on the hoist—' He shrugged his shoulders. ‘All I've made in years of flying and in prospecting since the war is invested in that outfit.'

He suddenly pulled up a chair and sat down astride it, his hands gripping the back. ‘Now then, about the survey I did: I don't know what the hell Winnick has been playing at, but I formed the impression I was surveying a perfect anticline. I can't be sure. I'd need to plot the figures I got on a seismogram. But that was certainly my impression. It ran just about east and west across the Kingdom. Whether the nature of the rock strata was likely to be oil bearing I wouldn't know. You have to be an expert geologist to determine that. But I do know this—the report Winnick made on the figures I sent him is a lot of hooey. I was never more surprised in my life than when I saw that article in the
Edmonton Journal
. I came across it quite by chance in a bar in Peace River. I was in town for a couple of days' rest from the wildcat I was working on. I wrote to Louis right away, but all he said in reply was that if I cared to come and check the figures against the seismograms his office had prepared I'd find them accurate.' He paused and blew out a streamer of smoke. ‘Maybe I slipped up. I'm not an expert and I've only been in the game three years. But I took time out to get a working knowledge of how the results of a seismographic survey were worked out and I can't believe that the figures I sent him could have given the results he reported.'

‘Have you seen him?' I asked.

‘No. I haven't had a chance. I've only just come off this wildcat. But I will.'

‘You know him, do you?'

‘Oh, sure. I know him all right.'

‘Is he straight?'

‘Louis Winnick? Straight as a die. He wouldn't be old Roger Fergus's consultant if he weren't. Why? What's on your mind?'

‘I was just wondering how he could have produced a report that differs so violently from your impression.'

‘Well, maybe I was wrong. But Jean asked me to come and tell you what I really thought.'

‘Have you checked your figures with the ones Winnick worked from?'

‘I tell you, I haven't seen him. But as soon as I get back to Calgary—' He stopped. ‘What are you getting at?'

‘Did you take the results of your survey down to Winnick yourself?'

‘Of course not. I was working up in the Kingdom all the time. We sent them to him in batches.'

‘How?'

‘We had them mailed from Keithley.'

‘Yes, but how did you get them down to Keithley?'

‘By the hoist. Max Trevedian was running supplies up to us and each week—' He stopped then. ‘Of course. All they had to do was substitute the figures of some unsuccessful survey.' He jumped to his feet and began pacing violently up and down the room. ‘No wonder Trevedian needed to be sure I kept my mouth shut.' He stopped by the window and stood there, silent for a long time, drawing on his cigarette. ‘There's something about the Kingdom,' he said slowly. ‘It clings to the memory like a woman who wants to bear children and is looking for a man to father them. Last year, when I left, I had a feeling I should be coming back. There is a destiny about places. For each man there is a piece of territory that calls to him, that appeals to something deep inside him. I've travelled half the world. I know the northern territories and the Arctic regions of Canada like my own hand. But nothing ever called to me with the fatal insistence of the Kingdom. All this winter it has been in my mind, and I have been afraid of it.' He turned slowly and faced me, eyes alight as though he had seen a vision. ‘I just wanted to get my trucks and go. But now . . .' He half-shrugged his shoulders and came towards me. ‘Jean said you wanted to prove Stuart right.' His voice was suddenly practical. ‘She said you'd got guts and you'd do it if you had someone in with you to handle the technical side.'

‘She's right about the first part,' I said. ‘But it means drilling.'

‘Sure it means drilling. But—' He hesitated. ‘How much is a drilling operation worth to you?'

I laughed then. ‘All I've got is a few hundred dollars.'

‘I don't mean that.' He resumed his seat astride the chair facing me. ‘Look. If I find the capital and the equipment, will you split fifty-fifty? By that I mean fifty-fifty of all profits resulting from drilling operations in the Kingdom.'

‘Aren't you anticipating a bit?' I said. ‘Even supposing your survey did show an anticline, you admit yourself it doesn't necessarily mean there's oil there.'

He nodded slowly. ‘You're too damn level-headed,' he said, grinning. ‘All right. Let's take it step by step. Tomorrow I'll leave for Calgary. I'll have a talk with Louis and look over the figures from which he prepared that report. Meantime, you get up to the Kingdom just as soon as they get the road through and the hoist working. You'll find my trucks in one of the barns there. Somewhere in the instrument truck there are the results of the final surveys I did. In the worry of not being able to get my trucks out I forgot all about them. Bring them down with you and mail them direct to Louis. While you're doing that I'll go and see old Roger Fergus. He's always been very good to me. I used to pilot for him quite a lot in the old days. He's a pretty sick man now, but if I could get him interested he might put up the dough.' He got to his feet, a gleam of excitement in his dark eyes. ‘Ever since I started in on this business I've dreamed of bringing in a well, of seeing the thing through right from the survey to the completion of drilling, knowing I had a stake in the result. If I can make Roger Fergus a proposition—' He paused and lit another cigarette. ‘Would you split fifty-fifty for the chance of proving Stuart right?'

‘Of course,' I said. ‘But—'

He held up his hand. ‘Leave it to me. Roger Fergus is an oil man and he's a gambler. That's why he put up the dough for the survey. I don't think he believed in Stuart, but he'd lost a lot of money in his ventures and he was willing to take a chance.'

‘The only person you could do it with is Fergus,' I said. ‘Otherwise we'd be up against his son's company. Besides, he owns the mineral rights. Of course,' I added, ‘if you could get one of the big companies interested—'

He laughed. ‘There's oil in the Rocky Mountains! You try and sell them that one. They've been caught for a million dollars on one wildcat in the Rockies and it brought in a dry well. No, if we're going to bring in a well, it will have to be without the help of the companies.' He turned towards the door. ‘You leave it to me. So long as I have your assurance that you're prepared to split fifty-fifty?'

‘Of course,' I said.

‘Okay then. You let Louis have those figures just as soon as you can get them. His office is on Eighth Avenue. I forget the number—'

‘I've got his address,' I said. ‘His office is right next door to Henry Fergus and the Larsen Company.'

He glanced at me quickly. ‘You don't think—. Look, Bruce. Winnick is okay. There's nothing crooked about him. That I'm certain of. I'll talk to him and then I'll see the old man. I'll wire you as soon as I've any news.'

‘And what about your trucks?'

‘Oh, to hell with the trucks,' he grinned. ‘Anyway, we'll maybe need them to check on the anticline.' He took hold of the handle of the door. ‘I'll leave you now. Jean said you were pretty tired. It's the altitude. You'll soon get used to it. Goodnight.'

‘Goodnight,' I said. ‘And thanks for your help.'

He smiled. ‘Time enough to thank me when we bring in a well.'

The door closed and I was alone again. I lit another cigarette and lay back on the bed. The thing seemed suddenly to have moved beyond me. I didn't feel I had the energy to cope with it.

During the next few days I saw quite a lot of Jean Lucas. She found me an old pair of skis and with the dog we trekked as far as the timber and across the lake to a little torrent where trout could be seen swimming in the dark pool among the rocks. She was a queer, quiet girl. She never talked for the sake of talking, only when she had something factual to say. She seemed a little afraid of words and mostly we trekked in silence. When we did talk she always kept the conversation away from herself. I found these expeditions very exhausting physically, but I didn't tell her that because I enjoyed them. And they had one advantage, they made me sleep better than I had done in years.

Meantime, Creasy and his construction gang broke through the fall where the avalanche had carried the old road away and the talk after the evening meal was all of opening up the camp at the head of the creek and getting the hoist working.

When I got in on the Saturday Mac handed me a slip of paper. ‘Telegram for ye,' he said. It was from Bladen.

CONVINCED FIGURES NOT MINE. SEND WINNICK THOSE FROM KINGDOM SOONEST POSSIBLE. ROGER FERGUS DIED TWO DAYS AGO. LEAVING FOR PEACE RIVER. SIGNED—BLADEN.

I looked across at the old man. ‘How did this come?' I asked.

‘The telephone line has been repaired,' he said. ‘They phoned it through to me from Keithley.'

I thanked him and went up to my room. So Roger Fergus was dead and that was that. I was sorry. There'd been something about him, a touch of the pioneer, and he had been my grandfather's friend. And then I remembered how he'd talked of our meeting again soon and I shivered.

When Creasy got in that night he announced that they were through to the camp. ‘We're wondering about the hoist,' he said to James McClellan.

‘You don't have to,' McClellan answered. ‘It'll work all right—I built it to last.'

‘Aye, ye did that,' his father said and there was a sneer in the old man's voice.

Hot, sudden anger flared in the younger man's eyes. ‘Lucky I did,' he said. ‘Ain't anything more useless than a hoist that don't work, I guess; unless it's a gold mine that's covered by a hundred feet of slide—or the mineral rights in a country that ain't got any oil.'

Father and son glared at each other sullenly. Then the older man shrugged his shoulders. ‘Aye, ye may be right, Jamie.'

The son thrust his chair back and got to his feet. ‘You'll get your money back,' he said sullenly.

When I went down to see Jean that evening it was raining hard and blowing half a gale from the west. Miss Sarah Garret opened the door to me. ‘Come in, Mr Wetheral, come in.' She shut the door. ‘My sister and I were so sorry to hear about the death of Roger Fergus.'

I stared at her. ‘How did you know he was dead?'

‘But you received a telegram from Boy today saying so.'

I wondered whether Trevedian, too, knew the contents of that wire yet and if so what he was going to do about it. I wished now I had told Bladen to write.

‘. . . such a distinguished-looking man. He came here several times. That was when he was interested in Mr Campbell's oil company. You're very like Mr Campbell, you know.' She cocked a bird-like glance at me. ‘Not in appearance, of course. But in—in some indefinable way. Things always happened in Come Lucky when Mr Campbell was around. And I do like things happening, don't you?' She smiled at me and her eyes twinkled. ‘So sensible of you to get Boy to do the organising side of your venture.'

‘Why?' I asked.

‘Why?' She tapped me with her fingers. ‘Go on with you. Think I don't know why? I was young once, you know, and I understand only too well how lonely it can be for a girl up here in Come Lucky,'

‘But—' I didn't know what to say as she stood there twinkling at me. ‘I didn't send Boy to Calgary,' I said.

‘Of course not. You just let his enthusiasm run away with him.' She gave a little tinkling laugh and then turned quickly at the sound of footsteps. ‘Ah, here she is,' she said as Jean entered the room.

‘I gather you know about the wire I got from Boy,' I said.

She nodded. ‘Miss McClellan was here two hours ago with the details of it. The news will be all over Come Lucky by now.' She took me through into her own room. ‘You look tired,' she said.

‘I feel it,' I answered. ‘Fergus's death—' I hesitated. I think it was only then that the full implication of it dawned on me. I suddenly found myself laughing. It was so damned ironical.

‘Please,' she cried. She had hold of my arm and was shaking me. ‘What is it?'

‘Nothing,' I said, controlling myself. ‘Only that Henry Fergus will now inherit the mineral rights of the Kingdom.'

She turned and stared at the fire. ‘I hadn't thought of that.' She reached for my arm. ‘But it'll work out. You see.' Her eyes were suddenly bright. ‘You've got a good partner in Boy. He'll get the backing you need.'