"Mr. Jordain, he say----"
"Jordan is in it, then, is he?" muttered Ralph. "Worse luck."
"He says I should place myself in the hands of some capitalist, who would form a company, paying me some in money and the rest in stock. Is not that the fashion to speak of in the language of commerce."
"Quite so, Mr. Rouget. That is the usual way of fixing things. And your figures?"
And here there arose much altercation and argument, as was inevitable where each wanted to get as much and give as little as possible. The dialogue need not be recorded. Its like can be heard in any market place, between hucksters and old women, chaffering and wrangling over a copper cent as if their lives depended on having it, though the one must sell and the other will buy, in any wise, and they both know it.
It was settled at last. Ralph was to arrange and bring out the company, with all perquisites thereto accruing, Rouget got a fifth part of the stock as his price, and a few thousand dollars, wherewith he hurried to New York in a fever of restlessness until he should have dropped them all into the same abyss which had swallowed so much already, in obedience to the infallible système. Jordan being first mortgagee, with power to become troublesome, was made solicitor of the concern, with a handsome block of stock allotted, the calls on which, it was understood, were not to be pressed. Ralph, as promoter, kept still, acquiesced, and said not much while the other two preferred their extravagant demands. It was he who was to issue the stock and handle the funds, and as the venture progressed he was sure of abundant profit. Meanwhile, it was best that his mates should have their way, be kept sanguine and in good humour, if only that they might innoculate the public mind with their brilliant anticipations.
The prospectus was a work of art, and it was fortified by certificates from the greatest authorities. True, these authorities had not seen the metalliferous deposits--indeed no one could see them just then, buried as they were under drifts of frozen snow--but they were allowed to see Hammerstone's survey, and Hammerstone was a man of knowledge and character, whom even the most distinguished felt safe in endorsing, if the fee were sufficient. As the mind of practical science puts it--practical science is the science of making as much money out of as little knowledge as possible--to express another man's observations in finer and more taking language, is surely the highest compliment one can pay him, and the most emphatic manner of granting him our valuable indorsation. Hammerstone was immensely gratified to read in the prospectus the opinions of Professor Sesquioxide, of Boston, and other luminaries, his bigger brothers among the sons of knowledge, so minutely confirmatory of his own; but he wondered much as to when they had been called in, and he felt a little hurt that they should have been so near to him and Montreal without visiting him.
The public mind was judiciously educated up to the receptive point by a series of graduated rumours and paragraphs of ascending interest. One may come to believe anything if it seems in sequence with what went before; therefore, when an assertion seems corroborated by others already accepted, and which yet appear to be in no way connected with it, the natural man accepts it at once. The newspapers swarmed with clippings from the latest mining sensations in Colorado, and following them would appear rumours of important mineralogical discoveries "nearer home." By-and-by there were descriptions of California bonanzas, followed by more rumours of vast metallic wealth at the very doors. Then an imaginative reporter received confidential information which he was not at liberty to divulge, but which he felt it a duty to his beloved public to hint at in various picturesque ways. He described gigantic masses of virgin copper quarried from their beds with pre-historic wedges which still lay beside them in witness, and discussed the civilization of the ancient Mound-builders in the popular archæological manner, still ringing the changes on the wealth of copper so near at hand. Finally, when people's minds were ready to believe, the prospectus of the Mining Association of St. Euphrase appeared.
After the association's subscription lists had remained open only a few days they were suddenly closed, and it was announced that the capital was all subscribed. Then all the dilatory who had contemplated investing in a general sort of way, but had not done it, grew eager to hold shares, which they hurried to buy at a premium. It was afterwards said that in every instance it was Ralph Herkimer who was the seller, and that he only subscribed for the shares which he sold, after he had touched the premiums. But people are uncharitable, and if a man ever ceases to be rich, they are sure to recollect naughty things which they say he did in his time of prosperity.
Before the snow was gone, material and machinery had been collected on the ground, and there was a rise in the price of the stock.