My father moved that, with all due deference to maternal and fraternal pride, these characteristics were not of sufficient weight to make sober city men entrust me with a mission of such great responsibility.
It was necessary, he said, that in my interview with the directors next day, I should cram them with every possible technical term that had ever been invented for the purpose, and he advised me to read them up forthwith in a manual for mining engineers, as the facts of the case were so simple that they would fail to impress the gentlemen of the managing committee, unless properly dished up and garnished, and served with suitable pomp and solemnity.
Here were the facts of the case in their rude simplicity.
Firstly. If, after carefully selecting samples from the mine, and crushing some twenty tons of the same in the machine with quicksilver, and, in short, going through all the necessary operations (a thing I should feel very much embarrassed to do now), if, he said, I did find gold, such a result would be encouraging, but not at all conclusive. Who knows? One of the people employed might, by accident, drop his purse containing gold into the machinery, and fail to remember the circumstance after. Therefore, if I did find gold, my duty was to repeat the experiment over again till I didn’t.
Secondly. If, on the other hand, I did not find gold, either in the quicksilver or the residue, the experiment would be quite conclusive, and my duty was to come back immediately and advise the board of direction to wind up the affairs of the company, and not waste any more money on such a fool’s errand—and, as he was perfectly sure I should not find gold, why, I need not trouble myself any further about the matter.
I could not but see the force of these arguments, and acted accordingly. I presented myself at the board next day a perfect dictionary of scientific mining expletives, and spoke in a most encouraging way of the prospects of the mine; stating that, if it contained gold enough to pay, the Victoria Gold-mining Company would, if well managed, probably be a very successful venture; that if it did not, my business would be to find it out, and break the truth to them in a straightforward and business-like manner; adding that, possibly, the gentlemen, my predecessors, had not found gold, but, by excess of delicacy, had lacked the moral courage to tell them the real reason of their failure—namely, that perhaps there was no gold to find—and had thus allowed them to incur expense after expense. I hoped, however, that such was not really the case, and that a very few days would decide the matter, should we agree as to terms, &c.
This was merely the substance of my discourse, for, by a lucky inspiration, I managed to make it last a long time, and to squeeze “lodes,” “gossans,” “costeanings,” and other impressive words into almost every sentence. It produced a very great effect on the directors, and even on myself; and after a few questions on their part, which I answered with great discretion (my father had foreseen everything), they retired to the adjoining room, where they laid their heads together for at least twenty minutes.
My excitement during this consultation was such as I had never felt before, and my efforts to appear unconcerned before the office-clerk were alone worth the remuneration I was to receive for my invaluable assistance.
At length the chairman came out to speak to me privately, and, after humming and hawing me into a state of distraction, he told me that they had severally come to the conclusion—first, that I was very young; secondly, that they had spent a great deal of money on the mine without having as yet attained any positive result.
These were facts I did not venture to contradict. He then said that if a guinea a-day for my salary, and half-a-guinea a-day for my expenses, would be sufficient to compensate for my time and trouble, the board would decide upon sending me down.
If a guinea a-day, indeed! I felt a wild impulse to embrace the whole board in the person of that venerable fat old fellow, but fortunately succeeded in restraining myself. I told him I would think of the matter, and return him an answer the following day; and, after bowing myself first into the office-clerk and then into the fire-place, I eventually succeeded in making an unconcerned exit.
I pass over my triumphant sensations and the family bliss, only chequered by anxiety lest the Victoria Gold and Copper Mine should come to grief before I got there. My answer to the board was, of course, favourable. I had soon completed all my little preparations, and on a splendid afternoon in August I found myself in the express train on the Great Western line, with the engineer of the mine, with whom I soon got on the very best of terms; a most sensible, lively, and gentlemanlike man, whose opinions on the gold question coincided so singularly with my father’s, that I was naturally led to confide in him to a great extent, and found his advice as to my future conduct invaluable.
I will not attempt to describe the details of my journey, which were all delightful—the ride at early dawn through the most enchanting lanes to Moleville; the delightful acquaintance I made on the top of the stage-coach, which completely drove mining and gold out of my head, &c.—but come at once to my business.
We walked from Moleville to the mine through a series of beautiful miniature woods and valleys—a short cut which the engineer, who had a fine eye for the picturesque, particularly recommended—and suddenly the first mine which I, a mining engineer of some standing, had ever beheld, burst upon my view. A few outhouses and buildings, two gigantic water-wheels,—erected at immense expense by my friend the engineer, whose fine eye for the picturesque made him do things grandly,—a lot of red soil and broken granite lying about, and many skeletons of former crushing-machines which had reigned in turn till Mr. Perkes’s victorious crusher had crushed them all into oblivion—such was the aspect that unrolled itself to my astonished eye. We made our way to a small out-
