Claire’s reproach had vanished. She was content.
“Tell me,” she said eagerly. “I’m just crazy for all that’s—happened. It’s been so long, Ivor.” She laughed a little self-consciously. “Oh dear, you know I just hated the weeks till they’d passed.”
“They didn’t worry you worse than me,” the man returned. “And yet, I don’t know. Maybe they did. You see, you hadn’t the thing I had to—say, kid.” He sat up in his chair. He leant forward. Reaching out he took possession of the slim hands lying in her lap, those hands he had so often marvelled over in their deft manipulation of the cards in the Speedway’s poker room. “I’ve hit the biggest thing this world can show a feller in the work that’s mine. Gee!” he breathed deeply, while his eyes narrowed as they gazed into the beautiful eager face before him. “I’m through with it all. I’m through—almost—with Beacon. We’re going to get right out. You and me and your Mum. We’re going where we can live in sunshine all the year round, where there’s no skitters and blizzards, and no muck. Do you get me, little girl? It’s right up to you to hand the word. We’re going to get married, you and me, just as soon as you say it. And for the sake of all that’s merciful, let it be before the winter closes down.”
Claire laughed happily.
“I guess you’ve fallen plumb off the main trail!” she cried delightedly. “You—you—great big, queer old thing. Now, you sit right back in that chair. My hands are good an’ comfortable in my lap. You’ve got to sit around the same as if I was your most important director, and, as my official mining engineer, hand me your report so I can pass it on to the shareholders and keep them good—tempered. Now begin.”
McLagan laughed. It was the laugh of a man whose delight was sheer obedience to a woman’s will. He obeyed her literally. He released her hands reluctantly enough and sat back. Then his smile faded out and Claire fancied she detected weariness in his serious eyes.
“It’s easy making that report to you. You won’t need the maps, and those figures a real director needs. Here it is, kid. We’ve hit a belt of territory with a world’s coal and oil supply in it. We’re in first and we’ll have the concession before a news sheet can grab a detail. That’s that. Coal? There’s hundreds of miles of mountains of it within a hundred miles of the coast. Say, in two years’ time, there’ll be a railroad from here to our territory, and from here to the coast where the mail boat only stands off at present. In a few years there’ll be a city twice Beacon’s size right down there on the coast where now ther’s only a fool sort of landing and a bunch of longshore guys. But that isn’t all, kid. No. That’s all to come. The real thing, the big thing that’ll set Beacon whooping crazy is right there at our borings. ‘No. 8’ sprang a gusher on us. They’re capturing thousands of barrels of the stuff. It’s the biggest oil flood I’ve seen in fifteen years of a life mussed up in oil. Do you get it?”
The girl nodded. A light of real excitement was shining in her eyes and her oval cheeks were flushed to something of the hue of her beautiful hair. She breathed deeply.
“Yes, I think I understand. Surely I do,” she cried, and her hands clasped each other tightly. “It’s the big thing of your life, Ivor. It’s your triumph. It’s all you’ve been patiently working for. I know. We’ve often talked of it. Work. Always work. Disappointment. Always disappointment. And then—oh, yes, I know. And Beacon. That city that’s always been in your mind. That ‘muck-hole,’ as you’ve always called it. In one bound you—you will have lifted it right up to a swell prosperity where there won’t be any need for the conditions you’ve always hated to see lying around. It’s your complete triumph. Your big thing.”