Matthew

Matthew Foley discovers gold on his land.

                         Matthew

 

John Thomas sat in the dining room at the Royal Arms concentrating on his coffee. He had ridden into town for supplies. Supplies purchased,  he sat in the Royal Arms stirring a cup of coffee.

“You Thomas?”

Thomas looked up from his coffee.

A large overweight man with a great gray beard sprawling down to his chest held out a hand. “Matthew Foley. Fellow you bought the land from.”

Matthew reminded him of a picture he had once seen of John Brown.  He had the same long beard and mop of gray hair.  But the eyes were not those of John Brown.  Even in the photos the old man’s intensity had been seen in his eyes. Matthew Foley’s eyes were shuttered.  Ignoring Foley's outstretched hand he turned back to his coffee.

Thomas had always blamed four people for George Henry's death; Daniel Foley, Isabella Foley, Andrew Harrison and Doctor MacTavish. That was over now but he saw little reason to like any Foley, least of all Matthew.

Matthew had controlled Foley land and interests in the township for almost a half-century.  After his brother’s suicide, Mathew had assumed close control over the younger Daniel’s land, to keep it for the family. It had not been easy especially since Daniel’s widow, Sarah had little love for him or Daniel’s two other brothers. He never had trusted that woman; too unstable, too Irish, not content to remain in mourning and concentrate upon her children like any respectable woman. Instead she had to insist upon acting the w***e.

“Could I have a word with you?" asked Matthew

“I found my brother’s remains on what was Foley land.”

“Aye. You lost a brother.  So did I. That was a long time ago. Sometimes terrible things happen.”

 “What do you want, Foley?”

“You mind if I sit?”

Thomas waved a hand at the chair opposite him. “That’s what chairs are for.”

“You’ve been a mining man in your time, haven’t you?”

“So?”

“Tell me what you think of this.”

He placed a small stone on the table in front of the constable.  It was a piece of white quartz half the size of a man’s fist.

A piece of ordinary quartz thought Thomas. “Collecting rocks are you, Foley?”

He picked it up and turned it over. A small fleck of yellow caused him to take a closer look. Imbeded close to the base, were several yellowish specks.

“Where’d you find it," he asked.

“My place,” said Foley.

“Close to an outcropping of quartz?”

“Could be.”

            Accepting that Foley would not give him any more information Thomas concentrated his attention on the stone.  His curiosity satisfied, he shoved it back across the table to Foley.

“Well.” Foley asked.

“Well, what?” 

“That’s gold, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It is.”                                     

Foley's lips moistened. “So what’s it worth, you think."

“The stone?  Fifty cents as a curiosity, Mister Foley. Nothing more. “

“Yes but you just said . . .

“Look Mister Foley, I’ll try to explain this as simply as I can.  There are three kinds of gold.  The easiest to take is placer gold, the kind you find on riverbeds.  That’d the kind most people think of but truth is it’s the rarest.  Sometimes its found in a vein, gold running through rock like blood through your arm.  That’s what I found in my claim in Alaska. The third kind, that’s what they have in South Africa.”

“It’s like nature shot gold out as pellets scattered through the rock.  That’s what you’ve got. You might have a couple of grains of gold in every pound of rock.  To get to the gold you have to get rid of the rock.   How are you going to do that Foley?  You need explosives for breaking up the rock, a crushing mill to grind it. Arsenic to separate the gold from the ore.  It all takes money and labour.  It works in South Africa because of cheap labour.  Not many Africans here.  You’ll need investors, men who know the business. Anyone like that you can trust Mister Foley? Don’t forget what happened to old Colonel Sutter.”

Matthew frowned.  None of this was working as planned.  Instead of being excited the man seemed almost contemptuous. “Sutter?”

“Colonel Sutter was one of the richest men in California back in ’48. He owned the land the gold was found on that started the California Gold Rush.  Thought he owned it.  By the time it was over he didn’t even have a door to hang his hat on.  Stampeders took it all. That’s the thing about a gold rush.  It just sweeps everything away.”

“Every idler in this township will be on your land by tomorrow, every man in the province by next week.  Course the government will want its share. Who owns the mineral rights to your land anyway? You or the province.  Let’s say you do.  Let’s say you keep off the stampeders.  Who do you develop this with?  Can you trust them? They’ll tear your land apart, strip away the trees, poison the water and chances are you’ll be left with nothing except a hole in the ground. Take my advice, Foley. Throw the damn thing away.”

“Look, you know about mining, I own the land. You and me, we could be partners. What do you say?”

“Your family's stupidity killed my brother.”

“Let bygones be bygones.  This is business.”

Thomas turned back to his coffee.

Foley curled his large hand around the stone.  He sat for a moment  waiting for Thomas to answer.  When no answer came he rose and without another word to Thomas strode out of the tavern.

                   ***

Wealth to Mathew Foley was the turning down of a third piece of cherry pie.  Food was more then mere nourishment.  It symbolized the clan’s prosperity.  All meals were heavy and long and laced with gallons of heavily sugared tea.  Foley men by their middle age developed waists of considerable girth, another indication of wealth. Mathew, as the head of the clan, carried the greatest bulk, but his two brothers also carried respectable weights.

The three brothers had gathered to discuss the clan’s concerns.  Foleys never made a decision without considering each others opinions.  An exception had been Daniel when he had married Sarah. His brothers had seen his error as confirmation of  the importance of clan solidarity.  Matthew, Tom, and George would never make that mistake again. After his showing of the stone to Thomas, Matthew traveled east to Northumberland County to meet with his brothers. The three had agreed that Thomas had been right. Outsiders were to be kept off the land. So how was the discovery to be used?

The Foleys prided themselves upon assessing a problem before acting upon it. The discovery was a great opportunity but must be used to strengthen the clan, not harm it. 

“We need someone who knows the law,” said George.

“A lawyer?” asked Tom.

“One we know we can trust” said Matthew

“Where are you going to find one like that? asked Tom.

“We don’t," said Matthew.  "We make our own.”

Peter  Amazon Press