CHAPTER XXXIX
_The Doctor Sings_
AS soon as Tom was gone, the Doctor turned to the others and said:
"Come, boys, we must get to work."
"What have we got to do?" asked Jack.
"Why build the new Camp Venture, to be sure. Don't you understand thatwe're to stay here perhaps for a month, and must protect ourselvesagainst the spring rains? We must build a shelter before Tom gets back."
"But, Doctor," interrupted Harry, "why should we stay here for a month?"
"Why, don't you understand," said the Doctor, "that we have discovered,right here on your mother's land, a coal mine that will certainly makeher comfortable all her life and probably make you boys rich. We've gotto find out enough about it to enable us to exploit it, and that willtake a month at least."
"But tell us about the coal," said Jack.
The Doctor replied by singing:
"Old King Coal Was a jolly old soul, And a jolly old soul was he; He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl, And he called for his fiddlers three. Every fiddler had a fine fiddle And a very fine fiddle had he,
but," continued the Doctor, "not a man jack of them would tune up forOld King Coal till little Tom got back, because they had promised Tomnot to set the fiddles going in his absence. That's a parable. It givesyou fair warning that I'm going to keep my promise to our dearestcomrade, Little Tom, and tell you nothing about this or any other coaltill he comes back. But I tell you we shall have to stay here for amonth at least, and that we need some sort of shelter against the heavyspring rains. So come, Jack, you are our architect. Tell us what sort ofhouse to build."
Jack thought a few minutes, after which he said:
"We shan't need a house; at this time of year all we need is a shelter,closed in on three sides and open to the fire in front. We can build itof poles and cover it with a thatch of pine branches and other brushthick enough to shed the rain."
"But if we have only three sides to our house," said Jim, "how are weto keep the ends of the poles in place?"
"Oh, that's easy," said Jack. "We'll insert short bits of pole betweenthem, with deep notches cut into them; and we needn't chink or daub atall. We ought to be able to build quite all the shelter we need, to-dayand to-morrow, particularly as we are in a thick grove of young trees,just the size that we want for our poles. Get to work, every fellow ofyou, and cut poles with all your might."
Just then a thought occurred to Jack, and he took the Doctor aside forconsultation.
"Doctor," he said, "It occurs to me that this coal mine, if it is a coalmine, is on my mother's land and that therefore it is worth my while andHarry's and Tom's to stay here and work up the possibilities of thecase. It is also worth your while, because you are in fact thediscoverer of it and my mother will naturally recognize your interest init, especially as we shall look to you to find capitalists to work thething."
"Oh, I'll do that, of course. If I'm right about the mine, I'll have nodifficulty in finding plenty of capital. The mine is at exactly theright place, and as to my interest, I'll take care of that when I cometo negotiate with the capitalists. I'll see to it that they allow me aproper commission for 'bringing the property to their attention,' asthey phrase it. So don't bother about me."
"No, but I'm bothering about Ed and Jim. If they are to stay here andhelp us for a month or so, they must be paid in some way."
"Of course," answered the Doctor. "I've been so long thinking of ourparty as a unit, whose constituent members 'shared and shared alike,'that I had not thought of them as persons not interested in this newCamp Venture. Let me think a little!"
He bowed his head upon his hands for a time in meditation. Then he said:
"Of course your mother cannot work this mine herself. It willneed at least a hundred thousand dollars of capital to make itproductive--perhaps twice that sum. I know enough of the situation toknow that I can arrange that without going out of my own family. Myfather and my brothers will put in the entire sum necessary--for I tellyou there is a vastly valuable property here,--and will allow yourmother her proper share of the stock for the mine itself. I'll arrangeall that to her perfect satisfaction before anything is concluded.Indeed, I must do that. Otherwise she would naturally make somebody elseher agent."
"Oh, she'll trust you, Doctor," interrupted Jack.
"It isn't a matter of trust, it's business," answered the Doctor. "Buton purely business principles we shall be able to arrange for yourmother to put in the property and my friends to put in the moneycapital. I shall not ask your mother for a cent, for she has been like amother to me ever since I came down here for my health and beganboarding with her. My own people will allow me out of their share, asufficient interest to compensate me. Now, I undertake also that they orI shall allow to Ed and Jim, half a share each in the mine, supposing itto be capitalized at a hundred thousand dollars, in return for theirservices while we have to stay here."
"No, Doctor," said Jack, "I will not hear of that. If you'll furnishone-half share, I engage that my mother shall furnish the other. Thatwill divide the thing equally."
The Doctor, seeing the entire justice of this arrangement, assented toit, and the two called Jim and Ed into the conference. When they laidthe proposition before the pair, it was joyfully accepted. Ed said:
"Even without that, we shouldn't have left the camp. We fellows have hadso good a time together that I, for one, would have stayed and done myshare of the work, with or without a financial interest in it."
"So should I," said Jim, enthusiastically. "Now that we are to becapitalists and stockholders and all that sort of thing, it will requireall our self restraint not to grow cocky and refuse to work. Still thereare a lot of poles to cut for the new shelter, and if you two fellowsare going to stay here all day and talk, the rest of us must work allthe harder."
"We're going to work at once, Jim," said the Doctor. "But I want you tounderstand that in my judgment this mine is going to be a greatproperty, and that your share in it will go far to make you prosperousmen."
Then Ed broke down. He had lived a hard life, trying to aid his widowedmother by such work as he could do, and this prospect opened to him, ofa little income independent of his work, overcame him with emotion as hethought of the good mother released perhaps from the necessity of hardtoil for the rest of her life. The simple fact is that as Ed turned awayto hide his emotion, the tears rolled down his cheeks. But if he sobbed,it was not until he had gone down the hill well beyond the ledge ofbroken stones that marked the boundary of the camp.
When night came, the eager boys began again to question the Doctorabout coal and coal mines. To every question, he replied by singing "OldKing Coal," and declaring anew his resolute purpose not to talk at allon that subject till little Tom's return. But the Doctor was jubilantall the same, and he said presently, "His Majesty King Coal is a verygenerous monarch and he is going to make all of us well to do if notactually rich." Then he broke out again into the song:
"Old King Coal Was a jolly old soul, And a jolly old soul was he; He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl, And he called for his fiddlers three."