A Woman Intervenes by Robert Barr

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'Not so early as you are, I see.'

'I think I am an exceptional passenger in that way,' replied the girl. 'I
always enjoy the early morning at sea. I like to get as far forward on
the steamer as possible, so that there is nothing between me and the
boundless anywhere. Then it seems as if the world belongs to myself, with
nobody else in it.'

'Isn't that a rather selfish view?' put in Kenyon.

'Oh, I don't think so. There is certainly nothing selfish in my
enjoyment of it; but, you know, there are times when one wishes to be
alone, and to forget everybody.'

'I hope I have not stumbled upon one of those times.'

'Oh, not at all, Mr. Kenyon,' replied his companion, laughing. 'There
was nothing personal in the remark. If I wished to be alone, I would
have no hesitation in walking off. I am not given to hinting; I speak
plainly--some of my friends think a little too plainly. Have you ever
been on the Pacific Ocean?'

'Never.'

'Ah, there the mornings are delicious. It is very beautiful here now, but
in summer on the Pacific some of the mornings are so calm and peaceful
and fresh, that it would seem as if the world had been newly made.'

'You have travelled a great deal, Miss Longworth. I envy you.'

'I often think I am a person to be envied, but there may come a shipwreck
one day, and then I shall not be in so enviable a position.'

'I sincerely hope you may never have such an experience.'

'Have you ever been shipwrecked, Mr. Kenyon?'

'Oh no; my travelling experiences are very limited. But to read of a
shipwreck is bad enough.'

'We have had a most delightful voyage so far. Quite like summer. One can
scarcely believe that we left America in the depth of winter, with snow
everywhere and the thermometer ever so far below zero. Have you mended
your deck-chair yet, sufficiently well to trust yourself upon it again?'

'Oh!' said Kenyon, with a laugh, 'you really must not make fun of my
amateur carpentering like that. As I told you, I am a mining engineer,
and if I cannot mend a deck-chair, what would you expect me to do with a
mine?'

'Have you had much to do with mines?' asked the young woman.

'I am just beginning,' replied Kenyon; 'this, in fact, is one of my first
commissions. I have been sent with my friend Wentworth to examine certain
mines on the Ottawa River.'

'The Ottawa River!' cried Edith. 'Are you one of those who were sent out
by the London Syndicate?'

'Yes,' answered Kenyon with astonishment. 'What do you know about it?'

'Oh, I know everything about it. Everything, except what the mining
expert's report is to be, and that information, I suppose, you have; so,
between the two of us, we know a great deal about the fortunes of the
London Syndicate.'

'Really! I am astonished to meet a young lady who knows anything about
the matter. I understood it was rather a secret combination up to the
present.'

'Ah! but, you see, I am one of the syndicate.'

'You!'

'Certainly,' answered Edith Longworth, laughing. 'At least, my father is,
and that is the same thing, or almost the same thing. We intended to go
to Canada ourselves, and I was very much disappointed at not going. I
understand that the sleighing, and the snowshoeing, and the tobogganing
are something wonderful.'

'I saw very little of the social side of life in the district, my whole
time being employed at the mines; but even in the mining village where we
stayed, they had a snowshoe club, and a very good toboggan slide--so
good, in fact, that, having gone down once, I never ventured to risk my
life on it again.'

'If my father knew you were on board, he would be anxious to meet you.
Doubtless you know the London Syndicate will be a very large company.'

'Yes, I am aware of that.'

'And you know that a great deal is going to depend upon your report?'

'I suppose that is so, and I hope the syndicate will find my report at
least an honest and thorough one.'

'Is the colleague who was with you also on board?'

'Yes, he is here.'

'He, then, was the accountant who was sent out?'

'Yes, and he is a man who does his business very thoroughly, and I think
the syndicate will be satisfied with his work.'

'And do you not think they will be satisfied with yours also? I am sure
you did your work conscientiously.'

Kenyon almost blushed as the young woman made this remark, but she looked
intently at him, and he saw that her thoughts were not on him, but on the
large interests he represented.

'Were you favourably impressed with the Ottawa as a mining region?' she
asked.

'Very much so,' he answered, and, anxious to turn the conversation away
from his own report, he said: 'I was so much impressed with it that I
secured the option of a mine there for myself.'

'Oh! do you intend to buy one of the mines there?'

Kenyon laughed.

'No, I am no capitalist seeking investment for my money, but I saw that
the mine contained possibilities of producing a great deal of money for
those who possess it. It is very much more valuable, in my opinion, than
the owners themselves suspect; so I secured an option upon it for three
months, and hope when I reach England to form a company to take it up.'

'Well, I am sure,' said the young lady, 'if you are confident that the
mine is a good one, you could see no one who would help you more in that
way than my father. He has been looking at a brewery business he thought
of investing in, but which he has concluded to have nothing to do with,
so he will be anxious to find something reliable in its place. How much
would be required for the purchase of the mine you mention?'

'I was thinking of asking fifty thousand pounds for it,' said Kenyon,
flushing, as he thought of his own temerity in more than doubling the
price of the mine.

Wentworth and he had estimated the probable value of the mine, and had
concluded that even selling it at that price--which would give them
thirty thousand pounds to divide between them--they were selling a mine
that was really worth very much more, and would soon pay tremendous
dividends on the fifty thousand pounds. He expected the young woman to
be impressed by the amount, and was, therefore, very much surprised
when she said:

'Fifty thousand pounds! Is that all? Then I am afraid my father would
have nothing to do with it. He only deals with large businesses, and a
company with a capitalization of fifty thousand pounds I am sure he would
not look at.'

'You talk of fifty thousand pounds,' said Kenyon, 'as if it were a mere
trifle. To me it seems an immense fortune. I only wish I had it, or half
of it.'

'You are not rich, then?' said the girl, with apparent interest.

'No,' replied the young man. 'Far otherwise.'

At that moment the elder Mr. Longworth appeared in the door of the
companion-way, and looked up and down the deck.

'Oh, here you are,' he said, as his daughter sprang from her chair.

'Father,' she cried, 'let me introduce to you Mr. Kenyon, who is the
mining expert sent out by our syndicate to look at the Ottawa mines.'

'I am pleased to meet you,' said the elder gentleman.

The capitalist sat down beside the mining engineer, and began, somewhat
to Kenyon's embarrassment, to talk of the London Syndicate.

CHAPTER VI.

A few mornings later Wentworth worked his way, with much balancing and
grasping of stanchions, along the deck, for the ship rolled fearfully,
but the person he sought was nowhere visible. He thought he would go into
the smoking-room, but changed his mind at the door, and turned down the
companion-way to the main saloon. The tables had been cleared of the
breakfast belongings, but on one of the small tables a white cloth had
been laid, and at this spot of purity in the general desert of red plush
sat Miss Brewster, who was complacently ordering what she wanted from a
steward, who did not seem at all pleased in serving one who had
disregarded the breakfast-hour, to the disarrangement of all saloon
rules. The chief steward stood by a door and looked disapprovingly at the
tardy guest. It was almost time to lay the tables for lunch, and the
young woman was as calmly ordering her breakfast as if she had been the
first person at table.

She looked up brightly at Wentworth, and smiled as he approached her.

'I suppose,' she began, 'I'm dreadfully late, and the steward looks as if
he would like to scold me. How awfully the ship is rolling! Is there a
storm?'

'No. She seems to be doing this sort of thing for amusement. Wants to
make it interesting for the unfortunate passengers who are not good
sailors, I suppose. She's doing it, too. There's scarcely anyone on
deck.'

'Dear me! I thought we were having a dreadful storm. Is it raining?'

'No. It's a beautiful sunshiny day; without much wind either, in spite of
all this row.'

'I suppose you have had your breakfast long ago?'

'So long since that I am beginning to look forward with pleasant
anticipation to lunch.'

'Oh dear! I had no idea I was so late as that. Perhaps _you_ had
better scold me. Somebody ought to do it, and the steward seems a
little afraid.'

'You over-estimate my courage. I am a little afraid, too.'

'Then you _do_ think I deserve it?'

'I didn't say that, nor do I think it. I confess, however, that up to
this moment I felt just a trifle lonely.'

'Just a trifle! Well, that _is_ flattery. How nicely you English do turn
a compliment! Just a trifle!'

'I believe, as a race, we do not venture much into compliment making at
all. We leave that for the polite foreigner. He would say what I tried
to say a great deal better than I did, of course, but he would not mean
half so much.'

'Oh, that's very nice, Mr. Wentworth. No foreigner could have put it
nearly so well. Now, what about going on deck?'

'Anywhere, if you let me accompany you.'

'I shall be most delighted to have you. I won't say merely a trifle
delighted.'

'Ah! Haven't you forgiven that remark yet?'

'There's nothing to forgive, and it is quite too delicious to forget. I
shall never forget it.'

'I believe that you are very cruel at heart, Miss Brewster.'

The young woman gave him a curious side-look, but did not answer. She
gathered the wraps she had taken from her cabin, and, handing them to him
before he had thought of offering to take them, she led the way to the
deck. He found their chairs side by side, and admired the intelligence of
the deck-steward, who seemed to understand which chairs to place
together. Miss Jennie sank gracefully into her own, and allowed him to
adjust the wraps around her.

'There,' she said, 'that's very nicely done; as well as the deck-steward
himself could do it, and I am sure it is impossible to pay you a more
graceful compliment than that. So few men know how to arrange one
comfortably in a steamer chair.'

'You speak as though you had vast experience in steamer life, and yet you
told me this was your first voyage.'

'It is. But it doesn't take a woman more than a day to see that the
average man attends to such little niceties very clumsily. Now just tuck
in the corner out of sight. There! Thank you, ever so much. And would you
be kind enough to--Yes, that's better. And this other wrap so. Oh, that
is perfect. What a patient man you are, Mr. Wentworth!'

'Yes, Miss Brewster. You _are_ a foreigner. I can see that now. Your
professed compliment was hollow. You said I did it perfectly, and then
immediately directed me how to do it.'

'Nothing of the kind. You did it well, and I think you ought not to
grudge me the pleasure of adding my own little improvements.'

'Oh, if you put it in that way, I will not. Now, before I sit down, tell
me what book I can get that will interest you. The library contains a
very good assortment.'

'I don't think I care about reading. Sit down and talk. I suppose I am
too indolent to-day. I thought, when I came on board, that I would do a
lot of reading, but I believe the sea-air makes one lazy. I must confess
I feel entirely indifferent to mental improvement.'

'You evidently do not think my conversation will be at all worth
listening to.'

'How quick you are to pervert my meaning! Don't you see that I think
your conversation better worth listening to than the most interesting or
improving book you can choose from the library? Really, in trying to
avoid giving you cause for making such a remark, I have apparently
stumbled into a worse error. I was just going to say I would like your
conversation much better than a book, when I thought you would take that
as a reflection on your reading. If you take me up so sharply I will sit
here and say nothing. Now then, talk!'

'What shall I say?'

'Oh, if I told you what to say I should be doing the talking. Tell me
about yourself. What do you do in London?'

'I work hard. I am an accountant.'

'And what is an accountant? What does he do? Keep accounts?'

'Some of them do; I do not. I see, rather, that accounts which other
people keep have been correctly kept.'

'Aren't they always correctly kept? I thought that was what book-keepers
were hired for.'

'If books were always correctly kept there would be little for us to do;
but it happens, unfortunately for some, but fortunately for us, that
people occasionally do not keep their accounts accurately.'

'And can you always find that out if you examine the books?'

'Always.'

'Can't a man make up his accounts so that no one can tell there is
anything wrong?'

'The belief that such a thing can be done has placed many a poor wretch
in prison. It has been tried often enough.'

'I am sure they can do it in the States. I have read of it being done and
continued for years. Men have made off with great sums of money by
falsifying the books, and no one found it out until the one who did it
died or ran away.'

'Nevertheless, if an expert accountant had been called in, he would have
found out very soon that something was wrong, and just where the wrong
was, and how much.'

'I didn't think such cleverness possible. Have you ever discovered
anything like that?'

'I have.'

'What is done when such a thing is discovered?'

'That depends upon circumstances. Usually a policeman is called in.'

'Why, it's like being a detective. I wish you would tell me about some of
the cases you have had. Don't make me ask so many questions. Talk.'

'I don't think my experiences would interest you in the least. There
was one case with which I had something to do in London, two years
ago, that----'

'Oh, London! I don't believe the book-keepers there are half so sharp as
ours. If you had to deal with American accountants, you would not find
out so easily what they had or had not done.'

'Well, Miss Brewster, I may say I have just had an experience of that
kind with some of your very sharpest American book-keepers. I found that
the books had been kept in the most ingenious way with the intent to
deceive. The system had been going on for years.'

'How interesting! And did you call in a policeman?'

'No. This was one of the cases where a policeman was not necessary. The
books were kept with the object of showing that the profits of the m--of
the business--had been much greater than they really were. I may say that
one of your American accountants had already looked over the books, and,
whether through ignorance or carelessness, or from a worse motive, he
reported them all right. They were not all right, and the fact that they
were not, will mean the loss of a fortune to some people on your side of
the water, and the saving of good money to others on my side.'

'Then I think your profession must be a very important one.'

'We think so, Miss Brewster. I would like to be paid a percentage on the
money saved because of my report.'

'And won't you?'

'Unfortunately, no.'

'I think that is too bad. I suppose the discrepancy must have been small,
or the American accountant would not have overlooked it?'

'I didn't say he overlooked it. Still, the size of a discrepancy does not
make any difference. A small error is as easily found as a large one.
This one was large. I suppose there is no harm in my saying that the
books, taking them together, showed a profit of forty thousand pounds,
when they should have shown a loss of nearly half that amount. I hope
nobody overhears me.'

'No; we are quite alone, and you may be sure I will not breathe a word
of what you have been telling me.'

'Don't breathe it to Kenyon, at least. He would think me insane if he
knew what I have said.'

'Is Mr. Kenyon an accountant, too?'

'Oh no. He is a mineralogist. He can go into a mine, and tell with
reasonable certainty whether it will pay the working or not. Of course,
as he says himself, any man can see six feet into the earth as well as he
can. But it is not every man that can gauge the value of a working mine
so well as John Kenyon.'

'Then, while you were delving among the figures, your companion was
delving among the minerals?'

'Precisely.'

'And did he make any such startling discovery as you did?'

'No; rather the other way. He finds the mines very good properties, and
he thinks that if they were managed intelligently they would be good
paying investments--that is, at a proper price, you know--not at what the
owners ask for them at present. But you can have no possible interest in
these dry details.'

'Indeed, you are mistaken. I think what you have told me intensely
interesting.'

For once in her life Miss Jennie Brewster told the exact truth. The
unfortunate man at her side was flattered.

'For what I have told you,' he said, 'we were offered twice what the
London people pay us for coming out here. In fact, even more than that:
we were asked to name our own price.'

'Really now! By the owners of the property, I suppose, if you wouldn't
tell on them?'

'No. By one of your famous New York newspaper men. He even went so far
as to steal the papers that Kenyon had in Ottawa. He was cleverly caught,
though, before he could make any use of what he had stolen. In fact,
unless his people in New York had the figures which were originally
placed before the London Board, I doubt if my statistics would have been
of much use to him even if he had been allowed to keep them. The full
significance of my report will not show until the figures I have given
are compared with those already in the hands of the London people, which
were vouched for as correct by your clever American accountant.'

'You shouldn't run down an accountant just because he is American.
Perhaps there will come a day, Mr. Wentworth, when you will admit that
there are Americans who are more clever than either that accountant or
that newspaper man. I don't think your specimens are typical.'

'I don't "run down," as you call it, the men because they are Americans.
I "run down" the accountant because he was either ignorant or corrupt. I
"run down" the newspaper man because he was a thief.'

Miss Brewster was silent for a few moments. She was impressing on her
memory what he had said to her, and was anxious to get away, so that she
could write out in her cabin exactly what had been told her. The sound of
the lunch-gong gave her the excuse she needed, so, bidding her victim a
pleasant and friendly farewell, she hurried from the deck to her
state-room.

CHAPTER VII.

One morning, when Kenyon went to his state-room on hearing the
breakfast-gong, he found the lazy occupant of the upper berth still
in his bunk.

'Come, Wentworth,' he shouted, 'this won't do, you know. Get up! get up!
breakfast, my boy! breakfast!--the most important meal in the day to a
healthy man.'

Wentworth yawned and stretched his arms over his head.

'What's the row?' he asked.

'The row is, it's time to get up. The second gong has sounded.'

'Dear me! is it so late? I didn't hear it.' Wentworth sat up in his bunk,
and looked ruefully over the precipice down the chasm to the floor. 'Have
you been up long?' he asked.

'Long? I have been on deck an hour and a half,' answered Kenyon.

'Then, Miss What's-her-Name must have been there also.'

'Her name is Miss Longworth,' replied Kenyon, without looking at his
comrade.

'That's her name, is it? and she _was_ on deck?'

'She was.'

'I thought so,' said Wentworth; 'just look at the divine influence of
woman! Miss Longworth rises early, therefore John Kenyon rises early.
Miss Brewster rises late, therefore George Wentworth is not seen until
breakfast-time. If the conditions were reversed, I suppose the getting-up
time of the two men would be changed accordingly.'

'Not at all, George--not at all. I would rise early whether anybody else
on board did or not. In fact, when I got on deck this morning, I expected
to have it to myself.'

'I take it, though, that you were not grievously disappointed when you
found you hadn't a monopoly?'

'Well, to tell the truth, I was not; Miss Longworth is a charmingly
sensible girl.'

'Oh, they all are,' said Wentworth lightly. 'You had no sympathy for
me the other day. Now you know how it is yourself, as they say across
the water.'

'I don't know how it is myself. The fact is, we were talking business.'

'Really? Did you get so far?'

'Yes, we got so far, if that is any distance. I told her about the
mica-mine.'

'Oh, you did! What did she say? Will she invest?'

'Well, when I told her we expected to form a company for fifty thousand
pounds, she said it was such a small sum, she doubted if we could get
anybody interested in it in London.'

Wentworth, who was now well advanced with his dressing, gave a long
whistle.

'Fifty thousand pounds a small sum? Why, John, she must be very wealthy!
Probably more so than the American millionairess.'

'Well, George, you see, the difference between the two young ladies is
this: that while American heiresses are apt to boast of their immense
wealth, English women say nothing about it.'

'If you mean Miss Brewster when you speak in that way, you are entirely
mistaken. She has never alluded to her wealth at all, with the exception
of saying that her father was a millionaire. So if the young woman you
speak of has been talking of her wealth at all, she has done more than
the American girl.'

'She said nothing to indicate she was wealthy. I merely conjectured it
when I discovered she looked upon fifty thousand pounds as a triviality.'

'Well, the fault is easily remedied. We may raise the price of the mine
to one hundred thousand pounds if we can get people to invest. Perhaps
the young lady's father might care to go in for it at that figure.'

'Oh, by the way, Wentworth,' said Kenyon, 'I forgot to tell you, Miss
Longworth's father is one of the London Syndicate.'

'By Jove! are you sure of that? How do you know? You weren't talking of
our mission out there, were you?'

'Certainly not,' replied Kenyon, flushing. 'You don't think I would speak
of that to a stranger, do you? nor of anything concerned with our
reports.'

Wentworth proceeded with his dressing, a guilty feeling rising in his
heart.

'I want to ask you a question about that.'

'About what?' said Wentworth shortly.

'About those mines. Miss Longworth's father being a member of the London
Syndicate, suppose he asks what our views in relation to the matter are:
would we be justified in telling him anything?'

'He won't ask me as I don't know him; he may ask you, and if he does,
then you will have to decide the question for yourself.'

'Would you say anything about it if you were in my place?'

'Oh, I don't know. If we were certain it was all right--if you are sure
he _is_ a member of the syndicate, and he happens to ask you about it, I
scarcely see how you can avoid telling him.'

'It would be embarrassing; so I hope he won't ask me. We should not speak
of it until we give in our reports. He knows, however, that you are the
accountant who has that part of the business in charge.'

'Oh, then you have been talking with him?'

'Just a moment or two, after his daughter introduced me.'

'What did you say his name was?'

'John Longworth, I believe. I am sure about the Longworth, but not about
the John.'

'Oh, old John Longworth in the City! Certainly; I know all about him. I
never saw him before, but I think we are quite safe in telling him
anything he wants to know, if he asks.'

'Breakfast, gentlemen,' said the steward, putting his head in at the
door.

After breakfast Edith Longworth and her cousin walked the deck together.
Young Longworth, although in better humour than he had been the night
before, was still rather short in his replies, and irritating in his
questions.

'Aren't you tired of this eternal parade up and down?' he asked his
cousin. 'It seems to me like a treadmill--as if a person had to work for
his board and lodging.'

'Let us sit down then,' she replied; 'although I think a walk before
lunch or dinner increases the attractiveness of those meals wonderfully.'

'I never feel the need of working up an appetite,' he answered pettishly.

'Well, as I said before, let us sit down;' and the girl, having found
her chair, lifted the rug that lay upon it, and took her place.

The young man, after standing for a moment looking at her through his
glistening monocle, finally sat down beside her.

'The beastly nuisance of living on board ship,' he said, 'is that you
can't play billiards.'

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