after crittenton madeira had organised the canaan mining and development company the canaan call sent him in one leaping, exultant paragraph out of his position as "our esteemed fellow townsman" into a position of far more classic significance by naming him the "colossus of canaan." madeira was a man of lightning-like execution of a plan, once he had got hold of his plan, and bruce steering, sharpened by circumstances into a consideration of every chance about him and even beyond him, had brought madeira the plan from far away new york. throwing his immense energies toward the prospect of ore in the canaan tigmores, bringing forward every dollar of his fortunes,--as usual not so large as they were accredited with being,--to finance his new projects, madeira had accomplished wonders within an incredibly short time. there were those, unacquainted with the contents of an envelope in madeira's vest pocket, who marvelled that a sharp man should let his projects be entangled with entailed property, but for the most part canaanites were too accustomed to follow where madeira led to marvel, or to ask foolish questions. even for those so inclined madeira had good answers. on the one side, he could show, from the progress already made, that there must be such a great quantity of ore in the canaan tigmores that it would be possible to take fortunes out of them during old grierson's possession of the hills, even though the old man lived but a few years. on the other side he could show that it was not in the canaan tigmores alone that he was pushing the search for ore, but in the outlying land that had passed into his control as well. it was true that he had put a steam-drill into the canaan tigmores, but it was equally true that he had put steam-drills up the di at two or three points far beyond the tigmores. he made it as plain as day that the operations of the canaan mining and development company would extend all over that section, and that the company's chances could not be taken away even by the death of grierson. and he made it equally and cheerfully plain that grierson would not die.
out on the streets of canaan, among the puppets who danced at his touch upon the strings, madeira never faltered in his exposition of the company's affairs and enterprises, and in the company's offices behind the bank of canaan, his direction was steady, resourceful and comforting. he could build up potential profits for the investing canaanites and build down potential failure in a manner so satisfying that the canaanites gladly gave him their money and fondly hung upon him.
it was mr. quin beasley, that conclusive reasoner, who said, "simlike ef you talk to crit fer abaout th'ee bats of your eye he cand show you that ef innybody,--don't keer who,--would putt, wall say,--wall, don't keer haow much you say,--as much as tin thousand,--in the comp'ny an' leave it slumber fer say--wall, don't keer haow long you say,--as much as fo', five months,--it 'ud be wuth,--be wuth,--wall, i don't keer to over-fetch, but i reckin f'm whut crit says, th'aint no tellin' whut it would be wuth."
and it was the canaan call that endorsed mr. madeira in that emphatic editorial, which is herewith reproduced, just as it was doled out relentlessly to the few canaan sulkers, under the caption of
"it will be dramatic, by gosh!
"when crit madeira, the colossus of canaan, accomplishes what he surely shall accomplish, when the roar of mill machinery begins to reverberate through the hills of the future joplin, arousing the vast energies and resources of we-all, pewee and big wheat, let us be generous. if there was a sponge, kicker, shirk or drone, let us cover his selfishness with the mantle of charity. leave him under the beating light of progress to wrestle with whatever remnant of a conscience he may happen to have. if he can stand by and coolly watch us work our gizzards out for the common good, and then reach out to share the fruits of our sacrifices, energies and enterprise, without a qualm, we can remember that there are many things in this world worth far more than money, one of which is that sense of having done our neighbour's share as well as our own. it will be enough for us to watch when, bewildered by the lusty life and growth and the maze of new-made streets of the future city, the laggard stands debating with that other self, that genius that has kept him what he is. fancy his striking attitude, thumbs in arm-pits and eyes rolling up to some tall spire, crying out to his other self, 'thou canst not say i helped do this! shake not thy towseled locks at me!'--by gosh, it will be dramatic!"[2]
within a month after bruce steering had entered the portals of missouri, madeira had put his first steam-drill into the hills. within two more weeks he had put in another. it took him less time to do the things that other men think about and talk about and put off than any man steering had ever known. one day, not so very long after old bernique's find in choke gulch, word had gone over canaan like an eagle's scream that ore had been struck in the canaan tigmores. old bernique had wrung his hands, and steering had gone grimly back to a little up-river shack, at redbud, below sowfoot crossing, where he was spending a great deal of his time these later days.
as the winter broke, madeira's ability to seize the pivotal point on which to turn theory into practice wrought so surely and so swiftly as to be inexplicable to anyone unaware of the fever that drove him on. his first face of ore had cut blind, but he only put two more drills to work, and in the early spring one of the drills struck ore again, a small face, but ore. they had not found the big lode yet, but every indication was that much to the good. the canaan call became so jubilant over the second find that even the sulkers lost sight of the fact that the find was on entailed property. confidence in madeira went to high pitch, a supreme tension that a touch might snap.
all canaan was waking up in these days, all tigmore county was nervous. town and county were in a pleased, tortured, ante-boom consciousness that, first thing you know, there would be a new canaan. some new streets were laid out; a number of people bought chenille portieres; and though crittenton madeira quietly drew his money out of the grange, for other and weightier uses, the grange secured new capital elsewhere and flourished mightily. for farmers from we-all prairie and pewee and big wheat valley, cotton raisers from the "upper bottom" and corn and cattle men from the "lower bottom" came into canaan "to trade," and filled the aisles of the grange, gossiping, getting information about the ore developments, then crossing swiftly and determinedly to madeira's bank to leave their money with the president of the canaan mining and development company.
out at his house, in his office, in the garden, on horseback, on foot, madeira kept his daughter sally near him. he watched his daughter almost constantly, just for the satisfaction of seeing her. as the girl went about her household duties, or walked in the garden with her long, supple stride, or rode the high-tempered horses from the stable, or drove with him, the fine glow on her face, her magnificent health and honesty and strength radiating from her, she was, for madeira, a continual justification.
"catch me taking anything away from a girl like that to give it to a damn yankee like steering," he would tell himself over and over. "won't she do the most good with it? it'll be hers soon. won't she do the most good? answer me that, now."
so much for the outside where madeira lived in the world of realities and met the various demands of each day's relations capably and coolly. inside his private office behind the bank, at his desk, he lived in another world, a world where shadow became substance, possibility became actuality and fear made facts out of fancy.
at night, after canaan had put its lights out and had lapsed into the shroud-like stillness of a country town's sleep, madeira was there, with his ghost, in his office,--figuring, figuring. on the roll-top of his desk he kept a letter spread out in front of him. it always happened that he took that letter out of his vest pocket for the purpose of destroying it, and it always happened that when he got up, far into the night, he picked the letter up and replaced it in his pocket. if the words of the letter had been seared across eternity with the red-hot iron of fate they could not have been more indestructible.
besides the letter, madeira always had on the desk maps, geological surveys, time estimates. von moltke never figured half so carefully nor on half so many shaky hypotheses as did madeira in his office during these nights. he came to know, through awful, blood-sweating hours, that with so much blasting, so much pick-and-shovel work, allowing for so many back-sets from water and blind rock, so many shifts of men could progress to certain points, in so many days. he sometimes realised that all this was unnecessary; that it was aging him and crazing him; that he could put his work through on the tigmores long before word of old grierson's death would, by any unfortuitous accident, leak into canaan, if it ever got there; that he would never have to resort to the subways that he was figuring on to steal the ore out of the canaan tigmores; that all this ceaseless, merciless calculation was but the reaction of a conscience, stalking, gaunt and lunatic, through the charnel-house of its own experience. but for all that he had to go on crossing bridges that he was never to reach, covering black tracks that he was never to make. often at his desk there, his mind became strangely obtunded and he babbled vapidly; his big face pinched up till it seemed lean and grey, and he pitched forward, face down, upon the desk.
footnote:
[2] the author acknowledges a conspicuous indebtedness to a southwestern weekly for this editorial.
