Men of Men - Smith Wilbur - Страница 58

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"Here is a perfect stone," Jordan picked a diamond the size of a green pea. "Look at that colour, blue as a bolt of lightning and as full of fire."

Rhodes took it from him, considered it a moment, holding it between thumb and forefinger, then he leaned across the table and placed it before Louise Sint John.

"Madam, your first diamond. I sincerely hope not your last," said Rhodes.

"mister Rhodes, I cannot accept such a generous gift," said Louise, her eyes wide with delight, and she turned to Mungo Sint John. "Can I?"

"If I agreed with you, you would never forgive me," Mungo Sint John murmured, and Louise turned back to Rhodes.

"mister Rhodes, my husband insists, and I can find no words to express my gratitude."

Zouga watched the scene attentively; there was so much happening here, so many nuances, so many undercurrents.

it was on the surface merely a demonstration of the remarkable effect that these bright hard pebbles had upon a woman. That was their true value, perhaps their only value. When he looked at Louise Sint John's face he could see that it was not avarice that lit it so, but a mystical emotion not far removed from love, the love of a living thing, a child, a horse, a man, a warming thing to watch.

Quite suddenly Zouga found himself wishing that he had been the author of such joy. That it had been he and not Rhodes who had made the gift which had transformed her, and it took a moment for him to free himself of that desire, so that he almost missed the glance that Rhodes shot beyond the woman's face.

. Suddenly it was clear to Zouga. Rhodes was not baiting for the woman; he was fishing for the man. That display of treasure was for Mungo Sint John, the man with half a million sterling to dispose of.

Rhodes needed capital. When a man sets out to buy every single claim on the Kimberley field, and when he is in a desperate hurry to do it, he must always be starved of capital. Rhodes" ambition was no secret.

Zouga himself had been present at the long bar of the Kimberley Club when Rhodes had made the declaration of his intent.

"There is only one way to stabilize the price of the goods -" Rhodes" euphemism for diamonds, "and that is an orderly, centralized marketing policy. There is only one way to stop the stealing of goods by the I.D.B., and that is through the institution of a rigorous security screen; and there is only one way to achieve both these objects, and that is to have every claim on the fields owned by one company! Everyone listening to him had known who Rhodes intended that the head of that company should be.

That had been a year previously, and now the bucket of diamonds on Zouga's luncheon table was proof of how far Rhodes had made good his threat and had eaten up the field. Already he was more than halfway towards his goal, but he had been forced to take in partners and still he was short of capital, desperately short.

For the serious obstacle that stood between him and complete ownership of the field was Barney Barnato's company. He would need millions, literally millions of sterling, for that final step.

So the reason for the little charade was clear to Zouga now, and he was about to turn his head to study General Mungo Sint John's reaction to it when the tableau at the far end of the table struck him forcibly.

The untidily dressed young man, heavy in the shoulders, hunched forward in his chair, unruly curling hair spilling over onto the broad forehead above the florid meaty face, thick arms and square powerful hands enclosing a glittering mound of treasure. At his shoulder the slim and graceful figure of the boy with the bright and lovely face, and behind them both, towering above them, holding them both in its thrall, the graven statue of the falcon god.

Zouga shivered, touched for the first time in the presence of the falcon by a superstitious chill. For the first time he was aware of the sense of evil that the old Hottentot had immediately detected in the statue's stony eyes. For one horrifying instant Zouga was convinced that the bird was about to spread its sharp blade-shaped wings and hold them like a possessive canopy over the two human figures beneath it, and then the moment was past. The tableau broke up.

Rhodes was sweeping the gems back into the bucket, talking quietly to Jordan.

,"Are you still studying the book of mister Pitman's shorthand that I sent you, Jordan?"

"Yes, mister Rhodes."

"Good, you'll find it of great value one day."

The boy understood the dismissal and slipped away down the verandah to his kitchen, while Rhodes casually handed the bucket of diamonds to his clerk and addressed General Sint John directly.

"In the section of the workings that we own we are recovering an average of ten carats to each ton of gravel that we process, to that we must add at least another two carats a ton which is being stolen by the labourers between the pit floor and the grading room. As our security system becomes more efficient and as we have better laws to control the I.D.B. we can expect to eliminate that wastage -" Rhodes was talking in that high-pitched voice so incongruous in such a big man, gesturing with strong square hands, persuasive and articulate. Reeling off figures for production costs and anticipated recovery, the expectations of profits on tonnage worked, returns on capital outlaid, he was addressing himself to one man only, the erect bearded figure with the black eye-patch, yet his manner was so persuasive that every one of them was listening with full attention, even Louise Sint John.

Zouga glanced at her and saw that she was concentrating on the confusing jumble of figures, and that she seemed to be able to absorb them. She proved that immediately.

"mister Rhodes, you said earlier that working costs on the number 9 Section were ten shillings and sixpence; now you use a new figure, twelve shillings?" She challenged unexpectedly, and Rhodes paused, gave a little nod of recognition for her perception before he replied.

"At the deeper levels the costs rise. Ten and six is our present cost, twelve shillings our projected cost for twelve months hence."

His voice had a new note of respect. "I am flattered that you have followed my discourse so closely, madam." Then he turned back to Sint John. "From this you will see, General, that the returns on capital invested are about the best you will find anywhere: ten percent is certain, fifteen percent is possible."

Sint John had been holding an unlit cigar between his teeth; now he removed it and stared hard at Rhodes with his single eye.

"So far, mister Rhodes, you have not mentioned the blue."

"The blue." Every single one of them at the long table froze.

"The blue." it was as if Sint John had spoken a gross obscenity, shocking them all into silence.

"The blue" was the main reason why Rhodes was hungry for capital.

"The blue" was the reason why the banks were calling on all diggers who had borrowed against the collateral of their claims to reduce their overdrafts by fifty percent; and Rhodes had borrowed a million pounds to finance his attempt to acquire every single claim on the New Rush field. As he had acquired each block, Rhodes had immediately used it as security to borrow money to buy the next block, pyramiding loan upon loan, debt upon debt.

Zouga was one of the few who so far had resisted Rhodes" advances, resisted with pain and heart-searching an offer of 5,000 pounds for his claims on the Devil's Own.

The offer had been made six months before, before those dreaded words "the blue" were whispered in the inner sanctum of the long bar of the Kimberley Club.

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