The Root of All EvilFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
General
The Root of All Evil
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction
"Well!" she remarked in a low tone as the two partners walked away from
the town. "I don't know how it is with you, but I've put my last penny
into that pit! Me and Albert's got just enough to live comfortably on
till we begin to get some returns, but I can't ever find any more
capital!"
"No need!" said Jeckie, almost fiercely. "Wait! as I'm doing."
She herself knew well enough that she, too, had thrown in her last
penny; there was nothing for it now but to see the additional capital
flow out steadily, and to wait in patience until the first yields
brought money. In the meantime, she was not going to waste money on
herself and her father. Selling most of the furniture which she had
gradually accumulated, and leaving the house behind the shop, which had
become an eminently comfortable dwelling, she transferred Farnish and
herself to a cottage near the pit, told him that there they were going
to stop until riches came, and settled down to watch the doings of the
little army of workers into whose pockets her money was going at express
speed. Wait--yes, there was nothing else to do.
There was not a man amongst all that crowd of toilers, from the
experienced managers to the chance-employed navvy, who did not know
Jeckie Farnish at that stage of her career. She was at the scene of
operations as soon as work began of a morning; she was there until the
twilight came to end the day. Here, there, everywhere she was to be met
with. Now she was with the masons who were building the cottages on her
bit of land outside the Leys; now with the men who were constructing a
solid road from the pit-mouth to the highway; now with the navvies who
were making the link of railway that would connect Savilestowe Main
Colliery with the great trunk line a mile off behind the woods; now,
careless of danger and discomfort, she was down one or other of the twin
shafts, feverishly eager to see how much farther their sinkers were
approaching to the all-important regions beneath. Sometimes she had
Lucilla in her wake; sometimes Albert; sometimes Farnish. But none of
these three possessed her pertinacity and endurance; a general daily
look round satisfied each. Jeckie, when she was not in her bed or
snatching a hasty meal, was always on the spot. Her money was at stake,
and it behoved her to see that she was getting full value for every
pennyworth of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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