"What about this rubber business?" said Harrie. "Colonel Marchand speaks as if he wants us to take an interest in the company as part pay for our work. He seems very enthusiastic over that."
"His excuse for having us take some shares is that we might possibly have more interest in the venture," said Ronie. "That stipulation makes me think there may be some sort of a trap to inveigle us into a profitless adventure, though I do not think the colonel would do that."
"You are as well able to judge of that as I am. In regard to the rubber part of the venture, to use a poor simile, that is very elastic. Unless you have given the matter some consideration you will not, at first thought, realize the importance of that commodity, which must govern the possibilities of the article in the markets. I will acknowledge that I am very favorably impressed with the idea. Rubber is fast becoming one of the most important commercial articles in existence. Turn whichever way you will, do whatever you wish, and you will almost invariably find that rubber is the most necessary thing needed.
"Not only is it used in large quantities toward helping clothe men and creatures, but it is used in house furnishings, such as mattings for floors, stairs and platforms, on board of ships, as well as in houses, and in hundreds of other places. It is utilized largely in the manufacture of druggists' materials; in the manufacture of all kinds of instruments and machinery that require pliable bearings and supporters, printers' rollers, wheel tires, rings on preserve jars. Erasers on lead pencils call for tons of the article.
"Then steam mills must have rubber belts, cars rubber bearings, and gas works call for miles of rubber hose, to say nothing of that used in gardens and on lawns. Billiard tables alone call for nearly a third of a million dollars' worth of rubber every year, while over a million dollars are spent for the rubber used in baseball and football! Typewriters call for a vast amount; so do the makers of rubber stamps, water bottles, trimmings for harness, and fittings for pipes of one kind and another. Altogether, the rubber factories of the United States alone utilize sixty million pounds of rubber annually. You will not wonder now if I say that rubber ranks as third among the imports of the country, and that its handling is one of the most profitable callings of the day. If this is the electrical age, as it has been called, it is rubber that makes possible the many applications of electricity."
"I had not thought it of such importance," remarked Harrie, frankly. "Where does it all come from?"
"A very pertinent question," replied Jack. "Originally it came from India, hence the name of India rubber, which still clings to it, though the great bulk now, and that which is of the better quality, comes from other countries. Foremost among these is South America. It is true a large amount comes from Central America, the west part of Africa, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago, but the best rubber comes from the great belt of lowlands bordering upon the Amazon, the Rio Negro and the Orinoco, the last named tract lying largely in Southern Venezuela. This country in many respects is the Eldorado of South America."
"Then we shall not be going into a country without at least one source of wealth."
"No; Venezuela is wonderfully well favored by nature. Capable of producing abundant supplies of first quality coffee, sugar cane, cocoa palm and cotton plant, it has its rich gold mines, its mines of asphalt, affording paving enough for the cities of the world; while last, but not least, are its rubber forests, which have only very recently been considered as a valuable and available resource. It is here American capital has entered the field of conquest."
"Do you think we had better go there, Jack?"