CHAPTER XXV
PREPARING FOR ACTION
The next day was a busy one, not only for Lennard himself but for otherswhose help he had come to enlist in the working out of the GreatExperiment.
He turned up at Bowcock's house on the stroke of seven, got into his pitclothes, and was dropped down the twelve-hundred-foot shaft in the cage.At the bottom of the shaft he found a solid floor sloping slightlyeastward, with three drives running in fan shape from north-east andsouth-east. There were two others running north and north-west.
After ten minutes' very leisurely walk round the base of the shaft,during which he made one or two observations by linear and perpendicularcompass, he said to Tom Bowcock:
"I think this will do exactly. The points are absolutely correct. If wehad dug a hole for ourselves we couldn't have got one better than this.Yes, I think it will just do. Now, will you be good enough to take me tothe surface as slowly as you can?"
"No, but yo're not meanin' that, Measter Lennard," laughed the manager."'Cause if I slowed t' engines down as much as I could you'd be the resto' t' day getting to t' top."
"Yes, of course, I didn't mean that," said Lennard, "but justslowly--about a tenth of the speed that you dropped me into the bowelsof the earth with. You see, I want to have a look at the sides."
"Yo' needna' trouble about that, Mr Lennard, I can give yo' drawin's ofall that in t' office, but still yo' can see for yo'rself by thedrawin's afterwards."
The cage ascended very slowly, and Lennard did see for himself. But whenlater on he studied the drawings that Tom Bowcock had made, he foundthat there wasn't as much as a stone missing. When he had got into hiseveryday clothes again, and had drunk a cup of tea brewed for him by MrsBowcock, he said as he shook hands with her husband:
"Well, as far as the pit is concerned, I have seen all that I want tosee, and Lord Westerham was just as right about the pit as he was aboutthe man who runs it. Now, I take it over from to-day. You will stop allmining work at once, close the entrances to the galleries and put down abed of concrete ten feet thick, level. Then you will go by the drawingsthat I gave you last night.
"At present, the concreting of the walls in as perfect a circle as youcan make them, not less than sixteen feet inner diameter, and buildingup the concrete core four feet thick from the floor to the top, is yourfirst concern. You will tell your men that they will have double wagesfor day work and treble for night work, and whether they belong to theVolunteers or Yeomanry or Militia they will not be called to the Coloursas long as they keep faith with us; if the experiment turns out allright, every man who sees it through shall have a bonus of a thousandpounds.
"But, remember, that this pit will be watched, and every man who signson for the job will be watched, and the Lord have mercy on the man whoplays us false, for he'll want it. You must make them remember that, MrBowcock. This is no childish game of war among nations; this means thesaving or the losing of a world, and the man who plays traitor here isnot only betraying his own country, but the whole human race, friendsand enemies alike."
"I'll see to that, Mr Lennard. I know my chaps, and if there's one ortwo bad 'uns among 'em, they'll get paid and shifted in the ordinaryway of business. But they're mostly a gradely lot of chaps. I've beenpicking 'em out for his lordship for t' last five yeers, and there isn'ta Trade Unionist among 'em. We give good money here and we want goodwork and good faith, and if we don't get it, the man who doesn't give ithas got to go and find another job.
"For wages like that they'd go on boring t' shaft right down through t'earth and out at t' other side, and risk finding Owd Nick and his peoplein t' middle. A' tell yo' for sure. Well, good-mornin', yo've a lot todo, and so have I. A'll get those galleries blocked and bricked up atonce, and as soon as you can send t' concrete along, we'll start at t'floor."
Lennard's first visit after breakfast was to the Manchester and CountyBank in Deansgate, where he startled the manager, as far as a Lancashirebusiness man can be startled, by opening an account for two hundred andfifty thousand pounds, and depositing the title-deeds of the whole ofLord Westerham's properties in and about Bolton.
When he had finished his business at the Bank, he went to the offices ofDobson & Barlow, the great ironworkers, whose four-hundred-and-ten-footchimney towers into the murky sky so far above all other structures inBolton that if you are approaching the town by road you see it and itscrest of smoke long before you see Bolton itself.
The firm had, of course, been advised of his coming, and he had writtena note over-night to say when he would call. The name of RatliffeParmenter was a talisman to conjure with in all the business circles ofthe world, and so Lennard found Mr Barlow himself waiting for him in hisprivate office.
He opened the matter in hand very quietly, so quietly indeed that thekeen-sighted, hard-headed man who was listening to him found that foronce in his life he was getting a little out of his depth.
Never before had he heard such a tremendous scheme so quietly andcalmly set forth. Bessemer furnaces were to be erected at once all roundthe pit mouth, meanwhile the firm was to contract with a Liverpool firmfor an unlimited supply of concrete cement of the finest qualityprocurable. The whole staff of Dobson & Barlow's works were to beengaged at an advance of twenty-five per cent. on their present wagesfor three months to carry out the work of converting the shaft of theGreat Lever pit into the gigantic cannon which was to hurl into Spacethe projectile which might or might not save the human race fromdestruction.
Even granted Lennard's unimpeachable credentials, it was only naturalthat the great iron-master should exhibit a certain amount ofincredulity, and, being one of the best types of the Lancashire businessman, he said quite plainly:
"This is a pretty large order you've brought us, Mr Lennard, andalthough, of course, we know Mr Parmenter to be good enough for anyamount of money, still, you see, contracts are contracts, and what arewe to do with those we've got in hand now if you propose to buy up forthree months?"
"Yes," replied Lennard, "I admit that that is an important point. Thequestion is, what would it cost you to throw up or transfer to otherfirms the contracts that you now have in hand?"
There was a silence of two or three minutes between them, during whichMr Barlow made a rapid but comprehensive calculation and Lennard tookout his cheque-book and began to write a cheque.
"Counting everything," said Mr Barlow, leaning back in his chair andlooking up at the ceiling, "the transfer of our existing contracts toother firms of equal standing, so as to satisfy our customers, and theloss to ourselves for the time that you want--well, honestly, I don'tthink we could do it under twenty-five thousand pounds. You understand,I am saying nothing about the scientific aspect of the matter, becauseI don't understand it, but that's the business side of it; and that'swhat it's going to cost you before we begin."
Lennard filled in the cheque and signed it. He passed it across thetable to Mr Barlow, and said:
"I think that is a very reasonable figure. This will cover it and leavesomething over to go on with."
Mr Barlow took the cheque and looked at it, and then at the calm face ofthe quiet young man who was sitting opposite him.
The cheque was for fifty thousand pounds. While he was looking at it,Lennard took the bank receipt for a quarter of a million deposit fromhis pocket and gave it to him, saying:
"You will see from this that money is really no object. As you know, MrParmenter has millions, more I suppose than he could calculate himself,and he is ready to spend every penny of them. You will take that just asearnest money."
"That's quite good enough for us, Mr Lennard," replied Mr Barlow,handing the bank receipt back. "The contracts shall be transferred assoon as we can make arrangements, and the work shall begin at once. Youcan leave everything else to us--brickwork, building, cement and all therest of it--and we'll guarantee that your cannon shall be ready to fireoff in three months from now."
"And the projectile, Mr Barlow, are you prepared to undertake thatalso?" asked
Lennard.
"Yes, we will make the projectile according to your specification, butyou will, of course, supply the bursting charge and the charge of thisnew powder of yours which is to send it into Space. You see, we can't dothat; you'll have to get a Government permit to have such an enormousamount of explosives in one place, so I'll have to leave that to you."
"I think I shall be able to arrange that, Mr Barlow," replied Lennard,as he got up from his seat and held his hand out across the table. "Aslong as you are willing to take on the engineering part of the business,I'll see to the rest. Now, I know that your time is quite as valuable asmine is, and I've got to get back to London this afternoon. To-morrowmorning I have to go through a sort of cross-examination before theCabinet--not that they matter much in the sort of crisis that we've gotto meet.
"Still, of course, we have to have the official sanction of theGovernment, even if it is a question of saving the world fromdestruction, but there won't be much difficulty about that, I think; andat any rate you'll be working on freehold property, and not even theCabinet can stop that sort of work for the present. As far as everythingconnected with the mine is concerned, I hope you will be able to workwith Mr Bowcock, who seems a very good sort of fellow."
"If we can't work with Tom Bowcock," replied Mr Barlow, "we can't workwith anyone on earth, and that's all there is about it. He's a big man,but he's good stuff all through. Lord Westerham didn't make any badchoice when he made him manager. And you won't dine with me to-night?"
"I am sorry, but I must be back to London to-night. I have to catch the12-15 and have an interview in Downing Street at seven, and when I'vegot through that, I don't think there will be any difficulty about theexplosives."
"According to all accounts, you'll be lucky if you find Downing Streetas it used to be," said Mr Barlow. "By the papers this morning it looksas if London was going to have a pretty bad time of it, what with theseairships and submarines that sink and destroy everything in sight. Nowthat they've got away with the fleet, it seems to me that it's only asort of walk over for them."
"Yes, I'm afraid it will have to be something like that for the nextmonth or so," replied Lennard, thinking of a telegram which he had inhis pocket. "But the victory is not all on one side yet. Of course, youwill understand that I am not in a position to give secrets away, but asregards our own bargain, I am at liberty to tell you that while you arebuilding this cannon of ours there will probably be some developments inthe war which will be, I think, as unexpected as they will be startling.
"In fact, sir," he continued, rising from his seat and holding out hishand across the table, "I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet,but when the time comes, I think you will find that those who believethat they are conquering England now will be here in Bolton faced by afoe against which their finest artillery will be as useless as anair-gun against an elephant.
"All I ask you to remember now is that at eleven p.m. on the twelfth ofMay, the leaders of the nations who are fighting against England nowwill be standing around me in the quarry on the Belmont Road, waitingfor the firing of the shot which I hope will save the world. If it doesnot save it, they will be welcome to all that is left of the world in anhour after that."
"You are talking like a man who believes what he says, Mr Lennard,"replied Mr Barlow, "and, strange and all as it seems, I am beginning tobelieve with you. There never was a business like this given into humanhands before, and, for the sake of humanity, I hope that you will besuccessful. All that we can do shall be done well and honestly. That youcan depend on, and for the rest, we shall depend on you and yourscience. The trust that you have put in our hands to-day is a greathonour to us, and we shall do our best to deserve it. Good-morning,sir."
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