CHAPTER XIX
"DARRELL'S FOLLY" AND ITS OWNER
Ralph Darrell was possessed by a passion for accumulating wealth, and,not satisfied with the certain but slow gains of his legitimatebusiness of banking, was always on the lookout for extraordinaryinvestments, in which he was willing to take great risks on the chanceof receiving proportionate returns. During an excitement caused bymarvellous finds of copper in the upper peninsula of Michigan, he,too, caught the fever, and became convinced that here was hisopportunity for acquiring a fortune.
From experts in whom he placed confidence he received such goodaccounts of a certain mineral tract located on Keweenaw Point, wheremines of fabulous richness were already opened, that he purchased it,and persuaded Richard Peveril's father to become associated with himin a scheme for its development.
When the crash came, and their golden dreams were dispelled by a rudeawakening, he had sunk his own modest fortune, together with half ofPeveril's, in a barren mine, and the blow was so heavy as to partiallydeprive him of his reason. He imagined himself to be the object of aconspiracy, headed by his partner, to obtain entire control of themine, which he also imagined to be immensely valuable.
For the purpose of protecting the interests that he fancied to bethus endangered, Ralph Darrell disappeared from his home, made hisway to the scene of his wrecked hopes, and took up a solitary abodein the deserted mining village. Although he was now a desperate man,and also one so crazed by misfortune that he believed every rocktaken from the Copper Princess to be rich in metal, he retained muchof the business shrewdness gained by years of experience. At the sametime, he had become sly, suspicious of his fellows, and absolutelynon-communicative. He had conceived the idea of holding on to themine, and at the same time spreading reports of its worthlessnessuntil the term of contract had expired, when he hoped that, in defaultof other claims, the entire property would fall into his hands. Thenhe would proclaim its true value and reap his long-delayed reward.
So he lived alone in the comfortable house that had been built for themanager of the mine, held no intercourse with his widely scatteredneighbors, discouraged all attempts on the part of outsiders to learnanything concerning him, rejoiced when he heard his mine spoken of as"Darrell's Folly," and devoted himself to keeping its valuable plantin repair, against the time when he should be free to use it for hisown sole benefit.
In looking about for some method of acquiring means with which toreopen and work the mine when it should be wholly his, he ran acrossa crew of Canadian fishermen, who were also smugglers in a small way,and, joining them, soon developed their unlawful trade into aflourishing business.
Having discovered a deep cavern opening on the lake and extendingclose to the cellar of the very house in which he dwelt, he decided touse it as a receptacle and hiding-place for smuggled goods. To enhanceits value for this purpose, he connected it with his own residence byan underground passage. On this he expended a vast amount of labor,digging it with his own hands, and holding it a secret from everyhuman being. Even the smugglers, who implicitly obeyed his orders,since he had made it so profitable for them to do so, knew nothing ofit, nor what became of their goods after they were delivered at nighton a certain rocky ledge, and hoisted up the face of the cliff to someplace that they never saw. Nor were the peddlers, by whom these samegoods were carried far and wide, any wiser, for they always transactedtheir business with "old man" Darrell, and received their merchandiseafter dark, in a certain room of his house, the only one they wereever allowed to enter.
Not only had Darrell retained to himself the secret of the cavern, buthe had also conceived the idea of hiding it from the observation ofpassing vessels by means of a canvas screen drawn over its entrance,and cleverly painted to resemble the adjacent cliffs.
Surrounded by these safeguards, and further protected by its localityin that desolate region, the unlawful business flourished amazingly.It not only yielded its chief promoter a sufficient income to supporthis family comfortably in their distant Eastern home and enable him tokeep his mining-plant in good repair, but each year saw a very tidysurplus stored away for the future development of the Copper Princess.
Darrell had learned of his partner's death, and waited anxiously foryears to hear from the Peveril heirs. As they remained silent, andmade no claim against the property in which his own life was socompletely bound up, he cherished the belief that they considered ittoo worthless even to investigate, and that he would be left inundisturbed possession to the end. He became so emboldened by thisbelief that, when the term of contract had so nearly expired that ithad but a few months more to run, he even began in a small way toresume work in the mine. Thus he had it pumped out and partiallyretimbered. He also started work on a new level, and in every waypossible, without attracting too much attention, got his propertyready for the great scheme of development upon which he was determinedthe moment he should be freed from his contract.
In the meantime his wife had died, and his only child, who had beenborn since he entered upon this strange existence, had come to sharehis lonely home. As she was but twelve years old when this greatchange in her life took place, she of course knew nothing of business,and had never heard of such a thing as smuggled goods. In her eyeseverything that her dear papa did was right, and she was too happy atbeing permitted to become in any degree his assistant to think ofquestioning his methods.
So the secret of the cavern and its underground connection was finallyconfided to her. She was also intrusted with the duty of watching forthe little vessels that brought the goods in which her father dealt,and of hanging out the signal-lights by which their movements wereguided. As these lights were always displayed from the stunted cedarat the mouth of the cavern, and as this place also served her for apost of observation, she passed much of her time within the limits ofthe great cave.
Her father had won her promise never to mention the existence of thecavern, and had also warned her not to allow herself to be seen in it.There was, however, no necessity of such a warning, for Mary Darrellwas too proud of her great secret to share it. Even Aunty Nimmo, theold black nurse who had come West with her, and had remained to carefor her ever since, was not told of the cavern, though she shrewdlysuspected its existence.
If to the foregoing explanation it is added that the littletrading-vessels, which were also to all appearance fisher-boats, nevertook on their return cargoes from the cavern, but always at eitherLaughing Fish Cove or the land-locked basin, the situation as itexisted at the time of Peveril's appearance on the scene will beunderstood.
As the sister schooner of the one that had carried off Joe Pintaud wasdue to arrive at about this date, Mary Darrell was keeping a sharpwatch for it, and paying frequent visits to her post of observation atthe mouth of the cavern for that purpose. On each of these she ofcourse drew aside the painted curtain, thereby letting in a rush ofair that penetrated to the innermost recesses of the great cavitybehind her.
It was a little breath from one of these that, finding its way throughthe aperture beside the slab of rock, and so on down the narrowpassage that led to the prehistoric mine, had blown out Peveril'scandle. Of course the girl, who was the innocent cause of that bit ofmischief, had no idea of what the breeze was doing, for neither shenor her father, or any one else for that matter, knew of the existenceof the old workings so close at hand.
On the following morning Mary again entered the cavern, singinglight-heartedly as she did so. This time she remained but a fewminutes, for she had something to attend to in the house; but she heldaside the canvas curtain long enough to look out, assure herself thatno vessel was in sight, and to allow another inrush of air. From it asecond little breeze found its way beneath the great slab and into thedarkness of the underground passage, where it restored poor,despairing Peveril to life and hope by cooling his fevered brow andcarrying the sound of singing to his ears.
The very next time the girl entered the cavern she was at firstbewildered to find the canvas screen drawn aside from its ope
ning andthe place flooded with light. Next she was frightened to note that thederrick was swung outward, and that its attached tackle was hangingdown out of sight.
Her first impulse was to run and call her father. Then she rememberedthat, as he was down in the mine, it would be a long time before hecould come. Also, being a brave young woman and not easily frightened,she determined to find out for herself if there was any real cause foralarm. So she crept softly to the mouth of the cavern and peeredcautiously out.
At sight of a man lying on the rocks at the foot of the cliff, withhis head in the water, her heart almost stopped its beating and shealmost screamed. He lay so still that for a moment she imagined him tobe dead, though the next instant she knew he was not, for he liftedhis head to catch a breath. Then he again plunged it into the water,and quick as thought the girl drew up the tackle by which he hadlowered himself.
"There," she said to herself; "I guess you will stay where you are,Mister Man, until I can bring papa; and he'll know what to do withyou!"
She had drawn in the tackle very cautiously, without noticing thelittle scraping noise that its lower block made in crossing the rockyledge, and she turned to go as she spoke.
But she must take one more look, just to see if that horrid man wasstill there, and what he was doing.
So she very carefully leaned forward and gazed straight down into theupturned face of Richard Peveril.